Last spring I was introduced to Andy Frisella’s 75 Hard program. A couple of my friends from the gym were doing it, but at the time, I had zero desire to follow suit. As a teacher, I was heading into my summer break, and depriving myself of alcohol and tasty food did not sound like the “hot teacher summer” I had in mind. Especially after the school year we (all of us teachers) had just survived.
If you’re unfamiliar with the program, it is 75 days of the following:
- Two 45 minute workouts a day (at least one must be outside)
- Drink 1 gallon of water
- Stick to a diet of your choosing (Obviously choosing one that aligns with your goals)
- No alcohol or cheat meals
- Read at least 10 pages a day of nonfiction (Ideally, personal development-type books)
- Take a progress picture each day
First, I sincerely want to send kudos to my friends who finished all 75 days. Spoiler alert, I was not as successful as some of my friends. I’m the type of person who needs structure in order to be successful, so I chose to do 75 Hard at the beginning of a new school year.
Everything started out somewhat smoothly. I was able to stick to the plan as far as diet goes. I was counting macros using the RP app which is amazing, by the way. However, I was not able to train like I wanted to. You see, I had injured my hamstring back in 2020, and the pain had finally gotten so severe that I finally went to a physical therapist to see what was going on. My PT’s recommendation was to not CrossFit for two weeks. You can probably guess how well I took that news, but I trusted her. I was allowed to go for walks, so I was doing two forty-five minute walks a day. The water intake, reading, progress pictures, and abstaining from alcohol were all pretty easy. Honestly, I felt like everything was pretty easy until the end of the second week. My grandpa passed away. His death sent me to my hometown to be with family for a few days, but I was able to stick with 75 Hard the whole time. This was by far the biggest challenge because it did feel a little insensitive to go for a walk when everyone was grieving, but I think it was crucial to my own grieving process.
I thought that by successfully sticking with 75 Hard during that time, I would be able to see it through to the end without issue. I was almost right, until day 69.
Long, personal story short, I had been so busy with work that I was feeling very disconnected from my social life. I had been working three days a week after school with the marching band, going with them to their Saturday competitions, and attending all of the football games. Day 69 was my first Saturday in a while that I could spend time with my husband, and on that day, I wanted a margarita. I personally feel like after going through the grief of losing my grandpa, being a prisoner to my job for months, and dealing with my injury, I felt like I deserved to have some fun. And guess what, I have absolutely no regrets about that decision.
Andy Frisella’s podcast about 75 Hard states that if you try and fail the program, you will feel “pretty crappy.” He explains that you will be so proud of yourself for actually sticking to something, but from my experience, I am proud of myself regardless. I am proud of myself for sticking with it when life really was tough because truly, I “failed” when things were easy, not when they were hard. I didn’t slip up, but rather made a choice. I chose to end on Day 69. So, yes, I’ll admit, I did not finish the program, but I also do not feel negative about that whatsoever. Unpopular opinion, I feel like beating myself up about failing would not be a healthy mindset, anyway.
I managed to lose about 20 pounds during this time, and some of the requirements became habits that I still do today. I still drink a gallon of water a day, I still read personal development books (maybe not every day, and not always ten pages), and I’m still counting my macros.
For anyone considering this program, I would recommend you establish a solid “why.” That’s probably why I wasn’t too sad about not completing it. My “why” was all wrong. I wanted to lose weight and 75 Hard is not a weight loss challenge; it’s a mental toughness challenge. I also recognize that because my friends were doing 75 Hard, I was on the bandwagon. Well, neither of those reasons were strong enough on day 69, because I had already lost weight and my friends hadn’t really been around (due to me being at work ALL. THE. TIME), so why not call it? If I had established a deeper reason for sticking with it, maybe I would have.
Overall, I am happy with what I did complete and I learned a lot about myself, my habits, and my motivations.
Side note: I did not include my before and after pictures with this post because that was not the point of 75 Hard. As mentioned in my blog, 75 Hard is designed to strengthen mental toughness and is not a weight loss challenge. If you’d like to see my progress pictures, head over to my Instagram!
