75… medium?
If you’re anything like me, the 75 Hard Fitness Challenge has been blowing up on your TikTok page for a while now and you’ve been considering giving this all-or-nothing program a try.
For those who are unfamiliar with 75 Hard, the fitness program was created in 2019 by entrepreneur Andy Frisella, who describes it as an “ironman for your brain” and a testament to physical and mental toughness.
For 75 consecutive days, 75 Hard participants must do the following:
Complete two 45-minute workouts, one of which must be outdoors
Drink 1 gallon of water and no alcohol
Read 10 pages of a book, preferably a self-improvement book
Follow a diet, of your choosing
Take a progress picture
And here’s the kicker: No alterations to the program are allowed. But that’s exactly what I want to do.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not a quitter. I know that I’m perfectly capable of completing this challenge by all of its original rules. The problem is, I don’t just want it to be a challenge. I want to it become a consistent lifestyle.
This summer I’ve decided to try out what I’m calling 75 Medium. Throughout this challenge, I plan on keeping, cutting out and altering some of 75 Hard’s original rules and transforming them into a version of the challenge that I could continue after the 75 days have passed.
Without further ado, here are the healthy lifestyle habits I will be following as a part of 75 Medium this summer:
75 Medium
Complete two 45-minute workouts, one of which must be outdoors.
I’ve decided to keep this rule of 75 Hard because I already run most mornings. I didn’t think it would be too hard to add another small workout later in the day.
As I rev up for my second half-marathon training, I’ve decided that I want five miles to be my new minimum mile count per run. Ideally, I want to run five miles five times a week up until I officially start training at the end of July. That might sound like an intense increase, but I was already running an average of 15 miles a week, so I feel like upping it to 25 miles is reasonable.
I also plan on walking every evening before bed. Somebody once told me that if you could take walking in a pill form, it would be the best health product on the market for your cardiovascular and mental health. Hearing this comparison forever changed my mindset on the importance of walking over constant, strenuous cardio workouts.
I’m also trying to bring back the 5-minute ab workouts I did during my early college days. I’m currently reading Atomic Habits and learned that the effect of small positive habits compounds over time. So if I do two 5-minute ab workouts a day instead of taking that time to scroll on my phone, I imagine my future self will thank me.
Drink 1 gallon of water and very minimal alcohol.
I’m keeping this rule of 75 Hard because I’ve never struggled with drinking a gallon of water a day. I have my 40 oz. Stanley Cup glued to my hands at all times, and as long as I continue to drink three a day, I think I’ll be fine.
While I miss college with all of my heart, I do not miss the alcohol consumption that came with it. I was nowhere near a heavy drinker, but I did drink more than I would have if I didn’t have a social event every weekend. I’ve found that getting a drink every time I go out for dinner with friends is a waste of money. I also don’t enjoy the aftereffects of drinking either.
As a part of 75 Medium, I only plan on drinking every once in a while or for special celebrations. While I don’t feel like drinking much anymore, I’m also only 22. On the rare occasion that I do decide to drink an alcoholic beverage, I only plan on having a maximum of two.
Read 10 pages of a book, any genre is good.
This is another 75 Hard rule that I don’t think I’ll have any issues with. My New Year’s goal was to read 30 books this year by reading 10 pages a day, so I’ve already been doing this for the past six months.
The only reason I’m not forcing myself to read only self-help books is because they get boring after a while. I mainly read fiction/realistic fiction, which I think will make this reading goal a bit easier.
Consistent wake-up times
This one goes hand-in-hand with my fitness goal. Because I work at 11:00 am every day, I have to wake up semi-early to go on a run if I want to beat the hot temperatures. Throughout this summer, I plan on waking up at 6:15 am from Monday through Friday to create a consistent morning routine. I’ve found that waking up early, even when I don’t have much to do, helps me feel a little more productive on a day-to-day basis. Waking up early helps me feel more put together and my actions a little more intentional.
Make a Day in the Life TikTok
About a week ago, I made a short TikTok highlighting all of the enjoyable things I do in a day now that I have graduated college. I’ve heard that the first year of post-grad life can be incredibly empty and lonely, and I wanted to show that having fun after graduation is still possible. Just different.
I’ve decided to use these TikToks as a substitution for the daily 75 Hard progress pictures to prove to myself that my life still does have meaning even if it isn’t the same as college life. Feel free to follow along with my Post Grad Diaries series throughout the summer!
My goal with this blog post is to show that it’s important to set goals in all areas of your life; Not just at your job. Hopefully, this post has inspired you to create your own 75 Hard challenge. Or should I say… 75 Medium?
