75 Hard: An Honest Post-Completion Review and My Lessons

2.5 months, 10.7 weeks or 75 days. That is how long I endured the task list of 75 hard, day in and day out. For some, it’s a chore. For me, it was life changing. In this week’s blog, I’ll give my honest overview of the program. How did I approach it? What did I learn? Did I meet my goals?

Before diving in, if you’re thinking of doing the program, then good luck. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth all the pain, self-doubt and emotion.

What is 75 Hard?

Unless you have avoided social media like the plague, it’s likely you will have heard of “75 hard”. If you haven’t, the high level overview is this:

“Each day, you must complete the following list. If you fail or miss a day, you must start over:

• Drink 1 gallon of water

• Follow a diet

• No cheat meals or alcohol

• Exercise twice per day, 45 minutes each time. One workout must be outdoors.

• Take a progress picture

• Read 10 pages of non-fiction.”

In isolation, the list doesn’t sound too terrible, right? The truth is — it isn’t. It’s pretty straight forward. A common misconception of 75 hard is that it’s a workout regime or a diet program but again, it isn’t. It’s a self-development program, designed to change your mindset and perspective on life and if you follow it properly, then it’ll do just that. The program has been composed to make you uncomfortable over a sustained period of time, forcing you into a routine that is both time consuming and exhausting. There are no rest days, no opportunities to slack — it’s relentless.

Approach

Before embarking on this journey, I set two goals. In my adult life I have periodically gained weight, reaching a point where I was self-conscious and unhappy with the way that I looked. Additionally, my fitness level was frankly appalling, so I knew that improving my stamina was essential. With this in mind, I set the following:

• Reduce weight from 78kg (172lbs) to below 72.5kg (160lbs).

• Build stamina/fitness to a level where I can run 10km with no breaks or walking.

Workouts

Moulding the program to fit my life was the biggest hurdle initially. I work a standard 9–5, so for me, figuring out when to do the workouts was the most critical aspect. I started off with a single workout before work and another after, which worked well for the first fortnight or so, however, I soon realised that the reality is no two days are the same and life happens, so being adaptable and flexile was critical. It soon reached the point where it didn’t matter when I did the workouts, as long as I did them. Sometimes, I’d do “walk and talk” meetings during the day for one workout and other days I’d be squeezing my second one in at 9pm in the evening.

Secondly to the timing, the types of workouts that I did evolved overtime. Since the start of COVID, I haven’t set foot in a gym and frankly I don’t want to, so I had to get creative with my workouts. One of my two would always be an outdoor walk, either listening to a podcast or getting lost in my own thoughts, where I’d often find a level of peace I’d never experienced previously (I talk more about this in Entry 002).

My other workout was variable. Each day, I’d pick from one of the following:

• Apple Fitness+ workout (30 minutes strength, 10 minutes core, 5 minute cooldown/stretch)

• Yoga

• Jog

• Skipping and body weight workout

• 5-a-side football

Diet

I like to think that generally, I ate pretty healthy already, so diet wasn’t the most difficult aspect of the challenge. the guidance here is vague to say the least, so it’s entirely up to you to be disciplined and select a diet that works for you. For me, I followed the following:

• No snacks between meals (with the exception of fruit)

• No takeaways

• No fizzy drinks

• Limit carb intake

• Limit carbs, sugars, etc

Reading

Arguably the most important part of the challenge is the reading. 10 pages sounds like nothing, which is true. It takes, on average, 15–20 minutes to read this many pages (and I mean read, not skim over). This is the part that will teach you and change you more than any other. My reading list was:

• Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch

• Sell it like Serhant by Ryan Serhant

• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

• Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Results, Takeaways and Thoughts

As I stated at the top of the page, this experience was life changing, but not for the reasons that you might think. Yes, the weight loss was brilliant and the workouts made me feel confident in my own body. The reality is, you don’t need to do two workouts a day for 75 days to get similar results — any diet or workout program will get you there. If you’re looking at this challenge as a way to achieve your fitness goals, it probably isn’t the best route. There is an abundance of personal trainers and dieticians out there, all of whom are experts in their field, much better suited to helping you reach your goals.

If, however, you’re looking to level up your life. To make changes that will last a lifetime, regardless of your physical state, then this is the path you’ve been looking for. Through all of the reading, habit building and mental growth, I have achieved a level of self-awareness and peace that I never thought possible. Studying a variety of topics from experts in their respective fields is the key to moulding a mental state that most people can only imagine. If you choose the right books, read the right material and embrace the program in the right way, then I can promise you that your eyes will be opened to a world you’ve only dreamed of until now. Above all of the other habits I have built, reading and learning is the one that I will carry forward without a second thought.

Finally, how did I perform against my two goals? What were the results?

• Reduce weight to 72.5kg.

• Run 10km with no breaks, no walking.

I am pleased to say that I managed to achieve both goals throughout the corse of the challenge. At my final weigh in, on the final day of the challenge, the scales read “72.4kg” (phew). Furthermore, a week before the end of the challenge, I finally hit a 10km run. Over the previous weeks I had built up from 3km to 5km, then to 7km and finally 10km.

With that, I’ll bring this blog to a close. I implore you all to consider embarking on this journey. To say that it will change your life in an understatement. 75 days from the perspective of a lifetime is a drop in the ocean. So what are you waiting for? Stop making excuses. There’s no better time than now.