I have always been an active person. I try to at least get 10,000 steps a day, but I’ve never had a lot of muscle tone and I’ve always had a little extra “padding”. About 3 years ago I was at my heaviest at 186 lbs(I’m 5’5″) I’ve tried a weight loss challenge here and there over the years. I would have some success, but I’d put the weight back on as I returned to my same habits and foods when the challenge was over. 2 years ago, my husband and I had some life struggles that brought on some big stress in life. That stress caused an unhealthy weight loss that got me down to 157 lbs. But once I started feeling less stressed and getting life back in place, my weight was back up again…I slowly made it back to 168 lbs. I was just so tired of this back-and-forth that my body always does. Something had to change!
My husband kept mentioning this thing to me…something we should do…we need to give it a try. I just waved him off…not wanting to try it. It sounded hard, really hard!! But finally one day last August, I was mentally ready, and when he mentioned it again, I finally agreed…let’s give it a try! That thing is 75 Hard and let me tell you, it’s just that…HARD! But now, I’m a believer! After completing 75 Hard and being a few months done while still losing weight and gaining muscle, I truly believe that 75 Hard has rebooted my body! I am at the healthiest weight that I’ve ever been, currently 143 lbs. and I actually am gaining muscle tone! Me! I have muscles! Of course, I’ve always known they were under all that padding, but you can really truly see some of them now. I still have work to do, but this is by far the most successful that I’ve ever been!
If you’re unsure what 75 Hard is, let me give you the rundown:
75 days–no alcohol/no cheats/no compromise
-Two 45-minute workouts per day one of them HAS to be outside(no matter the weather) spaced no less than 3 hours apart
-drink 1 gallon of water(only water, no flavoring)
-read 10 pages per day of a self-development book(physical book, not audio)
-follow a diet plan of your choosing
-take a daily progress picture
If you fail to perform all of these in a day or if you deviate from the plan in any way, you must start over on day 1!
See!!!! It’s HARD!!! I was so skeptical…I don’t have time to do all this in a day…I have to work, be a mom, be a wife, keep up with the house, and keep up with my kids’ schedules! And wait…no alcohol!!!???? I LOVE to go out for drinks or have a drink after a rough day. And I love to read….but usually I read fiction, I wasn’t big on self-development books. I was truly wondering how this would be possible for me. Seriously…2 workouts in a day, I was barely getting in one! I love water, but who can actually drink a gallon?? I hate taking pictures of myself…please don’t tell me I have to post them! (you don’t have to post them btw) Can I really follow a diet plan? 75 days of this???? Can we really do this????
Guess what? Yes, yes we can and we did!!! The results were incredible and we were so very proud of our accomplishments! It was great for our physical health AND our mental health! I had people on several different occasions tell me that I’m glowing. Like they said my skin looks great…I’m glowing!! What an amazing compliment. Also, several people asked me if I started taking “that shot”? When the answer was no, they asked “Then what ARE you doing?” People could genuinely see the changes that I made. But what they couldn’t see, was how great I felt and how mentally “healthy” I felt too. 75 Hard was just as good for me mentally as it was physically.
My husband had huge success as well. He wanted to gain muscle and lean down…and he did! The biggest challenge for him was reading 10 pages a day. He’s just never been a reader…just not his thing. But once he started his 10 pages a day…before he knew it, he wanted to read MORE than his 10 pages per day! He has continued this new habit…the kids and I even bought him a book for Christmas this year. Never did we ever think a book would be a gift he would love! He is now a reader and gets excited for what’s next on his “to-read” list.
This challenge also brought us closer together as a couple. We found SOOOOO many clean and healthy recipes and enjoyed the challenge of sticking to our diet plan. We kept each other in check by being accountability partners. We asked each other each night if we did all the things….we REFUSED to start over because one of us forgot to do something! We did our 1st workouts separately, but we saved our 2nd workout to do together. We started evening walks and we were rocking those evening walks! We had our walking miles in the 13-minute range! But most important were the talks we had…we had so many great conversations that we hadn’t had before this challenge. It was 45 minutes of uninterrupted time together to talk about anything and everything. Even when we ran out of things to talk about, it felt good to have comfortable silence together. We continue those evening walks…it’s not every day, but it’s time that we both enjoy and we know it’s a routine we want to keep.
I’m going to write another blog post about the specifics that my husband and I did for success in this 75 Hard Challenge with: our diet plan, our workouts, books that we read, and anything that helped our success; if you are interested in learning more about 75 Hard and the history behind it, I encourage you to take a look at the website I’ve linked, and to give this podcast a listen. Andy Frisella started this challenge and in these links, you’ll understand his “why”. The best part about this is…it’s free! It will cost you NOTHING to give this a try…to see if it gives your body a reboot! All it takes is your hard work and dedication!
https://andyfrisella.com/pages/75hard-info
Our progress photos-Day 1, 50, and 75
Philippians 4:13-I can do all things through him who strengthens me.