A couple of months ago, I took on the 75 hard challenge and if I stuck with it, my 75th day would have fallen on the 31st of this month. Obviously, by that last sentence, I did not finish the challenge but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I wouldn’t say I quit, I would say I had several “day 1s” that were linked to my inability to hold down water, but I’ll get to that later. Let’s talk about my 75 hard results as a whole.
I realized a very important thing about myself when I took it on. While I’d like to think I’m in the Mercedes or Lexus league of humans, I’m not a Porsche, I can’t just go from 0 to 60 overnight and that’s basically what I tried to do. I went from the very occasional very casual stroll around the neighborhood to taking on (2) 45-minute workouts every.single.day.
Sure, I tried a mix of things, like yoga in the morning and a walk in the evening, or just things that wouldn’t be so difficult on my body but at the end of the day, I am 37 and going from nothing to something is always going to be difficult … period. I didn’t think it would be that difficult because I ran the Disney Princess 10k with maybe 2 weeks of training and I’m being very generous with the word “training” in this sentence. Even then, that was almost 3 years ago and time, plus the addition of weight I’ve gained during the pandemic, changes the ability to just jump right in.
With that being said, here are a few other things I learned while doing the 75 hard challenge and what I’m doing differently for the last three months of the year.
Drinking the amount of water that’s right for my body weight
I definitely drank more water during this challenge than I probably ever have under normal circumstances. Even with that being the case, water was my downfall. Everyone makes it seem so easy to down that daily gallon of water but no matter how early I started in the day, nor how much infusing with fruits or herbs I did, I could never seem to pass that galloon mark. Not wanting to be a cheater, I was, instead, more like Bill Murray in Groundhogs Day as every day became “day 1” with me trying to drink 128 ounces instead of the 110 threshold my body seems to have set for me.
Yeah, I was close, but no cigar, and after 3 weeks of trying this was the thing that led me to back away from the challenge.
Switching out lactose for non-dairy alternatives
I’d already decided a year or so ago that I was pretty sure I was lactose intolerant but milkshakes seemed to be the only thing that really bothered me. For the challenge, the “diet” I chose to follow was returning to a vegetarian lifestyle and doing intermittent fasting only eating between 10 am and 6 pm, Monday through Friday. This truly brought out the fact that my body does not like dairy in any form and I’m gradually converting out my dairy products with vegan alternatives as a result.
Regarding the intermittent fasting, it didn’t teach me anything about lactose intolerance but it did teach me doing it the way I was, wasn’t going to work for me. I was doing early morning workouts, at 6:30 am, to start the day but not eating until 10 am. I constantly felt faint and/or nauseous because I really do need something when I workout even it’s just a banana. As a result, I’ve kept the early morning workouts because they set the tone for my whole day, but I’ve adjusted the timing of my eating to allow for food earlier in the morning.
Walking is great but it’s not as effective when you’re on a casual stroll
While I did make one of my exercises walking outside every morning because, let’s be honest, it was the easiest thing to do outdoors with the least amount of effort, I never quite made it past that casual stroll. I know the point isn’t to lose weight per se and it’s more of a mental challenge, I also know the main thing you see when you type in “75 hard results” are the many people who’ve lost weight, so it’s just expected. Let me be the first to tell you, a casual stroll wasn’t going to get me there.
To switch it up, and force me to get into a brisk walk, I’ve started walking the various trails at the white water rafting center.
A body at rest needs rest days
This leads back to my original story of going from 0 to 60. While I DIDNOT take any rest days during the 3 weeks I gave it the old college try, I really felt like I needed some time to rest my body. I was experiencing pains in my hip bones, knees, and just various places you don’t normally expect to feel so much pain after things like light walking and yoga. I did some other things like dancing and such to make it more “fun” but those pains in my body weren’t feeling the excitement.
I’m not sure if it’s because I was working out every day or because I needed additional vitamins and supplements, especially losing so many things by being a vegetarian. I will say, it did get better after a few weeks, but I definitely should have planned to start a few weeks after preparing my body instead of jumping right into it like I was in my early twenties. Body aches are not what you want.
CBD really is my friend
I’d already been reading about CBD and tried various products like ciders and oils, but I really found out how much of my friend it is during this process and one of the major 75 hard results is adding CBD into my almost daily routine. Those pains I was experiencing, CBD alleviated the vast majority of them. It also helped with things like sleeping and anxiety and I’m definitely a believer in the healing powers of cannabis now, so much so, that I’ve been purchasing various beauty products with it in there.
So, that’s it. I didn’t finish, but I’m not beating myself up over my 75 hard results either. I’m falling into an even better eating lifestyle choice than I started out with, I’m still exercising and adding in some strength training this week to go along with the nature walking, I’m reading more, stay away from alcohol has never been an issue (I do like to do a cider tasting in autumn after discovering it’s the only form of beer I like), I’m definitely drinking more water than ever and while it’s not a gallon, it’s my doctor recommended amount of half my body weight in ounces adjusting for 12 ounces more per 30 minutes of working out I do. Does this still count as doing 75 hard, I don’t know, but I will be doing this for the remainder of the year.
If you took on the challenge, what were your 75 hard results? Did it lead to you changing your lifestyle? Please, let me know in the comments and, as always, thanks for reading!
Workout in Style
