What I learnt from doing 75 Hard
Key learnings from my journey on the 75 hard challenge and results. One of the hardest things I have done, but one of the most rewarding.
So I finally completed the 75 hard challenge! What did I learn? I learnt a lot about myself and about what I needed to do to change my habits and become a better person. To become more healthier and fitter, and take control of my food addictions.
Discipline
Is definitely the key to this challenge and what I learnt was the key to loosing weight. Motivation comes and goes, you cant rely on being motivated to do anything. I have learnt this with my project car. Motivation comes in waves, and things just don’t get done, and before you know it a year has past. Discipline has proven that this mindset works. I have lacked discipline for such a long time and learning to take back control and be disciplined has been life changing.
Atomic habits
Has also been a key element in my challenge. Reading this book first has setup me up to succeed, and changed so many factors of how I challenge each day. Everyone always says one bite at a time, I like to think of it as stacking up lots of little things to for a new me. That way it doesn’t seem so difficult, and is easier to change one little thing if it’s not working. All of these little things add their weight behind your goal, making it easier to achieve your one big change.
“…The best way to un-learn unhealthy habits is to introduce friction” - James Clear
Here’s my list of little habits I introduced to help me succeed in the last 75 days
Cold showers for >30 secs per day
Waking up at 4am each day
Walking for 45mins during my lunch break at work
Sticking to a diet - in my case Carnivore, no cheat meals
Reading a book. I have found this so valuable
Electrolyte supplements
Moving desk at work to create more friction, so I can be more productive and get more work completed each day, so I had time to go for a walk.
Fasting for >16 hrs per day. I just don’t need to eat as much. I have never felt hungry eating One Meal A Day.
Ensuring I get more than 8hrs sleep per day, Yip bed at 8pm each day!
Creating a routine
Blog/Journal everyday
Taking a selfie each day…don’t under estimate the importance of this seemingly simple task.
Time
It takes time. I couldn’t tell you when I was going to lose weight, or change my attitude but I knew that if I just kept going it would happen and i’d end up where I needed and wanted to be. I feel great…now, but I was feeling low at 133kg! My back hurt all the time, my left hip was starting to cause me grief, my Knees hurt, ankle clicked, my mood was not healthy, and just a general feeling of urgh! This all slowly faded overtime and now has pretty much gone. I still have work to do but man what a turn around in 75 days.
Im gonna take a break for a week to ease into a new meal plan, though i’m curious to stick to carnivore for longer than 3 months. It’s worked multiple times, though I’m craving a few different flavours, so Keto might be a go for a break, or just OMAD and fasting. I don’t seem to be hungry all the time doing this, so this might be the new me.
Exercise
Everyone knows exercise its good for you, the problem I had was I expected to see immediate results, well duh you don’t see any immediate benefits. This is always an issue for everyone, though this is where discipline kicks in. You have to trust the process. You only need to look at my photo to see the benefits of 75 days of hard work!
I accidentally cropped my first image and it made me look bigger, but thats actually how big I was when started the challenge. One unhealthy, overweight middle aged man! oh boy! On the right 75 days done on my way to a healthier leaner me.
Ok i’m no body builder, but the change is amazing even to my own eyes. What I achieved in such a short time literally blew me away. It will be interesting to see the changes in another month or two. I have started to introduce weights in the last few weeks, so should see some benefits in 6 weeks or so. But the key is to be consistent and disciplined. Your body and mind needs this, and after all it’s the best present you can give yourself. Your health.
Sleep!
I am now a firm believer that sleep is a key part of weight loss. The weeks I have slept well, I have lost more weight. I’m no scientist but when I’m sleeping well, I’m recovering well, and my weight seems to go down faster. It’s a vicious cycle, but trying to get 8hrs sleep per night defiantly ramps up the weight loss.
Theres some really good books and YouTube videos on sleep, its effects and why we need it, and how to improve it, check out some of the below of my highly recommended links
Why Sleep Is MORE IMPORTANT Than Diet!
The Common SLEEP MISTAKES You Make That DESTROY Your Health!
I plan to write blog in the coming weeks on my struggles with sleep and what I have learnt and its crucial benefits so stay tuned.
Weight loss.
One thing I have learnt as that you weight fluctuates even if you stick to a diet, routine, or regime. No two days are the same. I tried multiple weeks of weighing in everyday just to experiment and see what was happening with my weight. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you're capable of switching off or ignoring the results or the answers you were hoping for. This is something that I have learnt in the past few years of stock trading on the share market. You have to switch off your emotions and believe in the process, you convictions, research and what you know to be true. Make a decision and stick to it. Stay the course!
Over a week, as an example, I noticed my weight fluctuate up to 1.5kg in 7 days. Id consistently loose weight, but some days I was down others I was up. I can only surmise, with out doing blood tests or real scientific studies, that this was either water retention, not enough sleep and recovery, or stress. It can be the only answers to the fluctuations, I could just never pin point them. I ate the same thing everyday, worked out at the same time, did the same routes, and drank the same amount of water. I literally stuck to the plan but yet over a week my weight fluctuated.
So what did I learn. I learnt to stay the course. You can’t weigh in everyday and expect a constant slide, this only happens over time. Many times over the past 75 days I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself to stay the course, switched off the negative thoughts of weight gain, and carried on. This has always been my downfall, expecting things to change quickly. Waking up looking in the mirror only to be disappointed that nothing happened overnight. Sounds stupid I know, but im sure im not alone. I thought it would magically take care of itself. It doesn’t! 75 Hard has taught me that. You have to be consistent, stick at it, and look back when you reach a goal. Set small goals, like 1kg a week. A healthy amount to loose, and just take one day at a time. Many bites of an apple make light work. When you Goa distance you will notice a big result.
Going the extra mile
So to make the challenge a little bit more interesting I decided to add in a couple of mini goals, to see if I could really change my attitude and learn what I was capable of.
Here’s a list of my mini Goals I set myself for the 75 hard challenge, on top of the 5 tasks for the base challenge. As you’ll see I didn’t achieve all of them, but I did manage to tick a number of them off over the course of the challenge.
Cold shower everyday for at least 30 seconds a day, total of at least 11mins a week. TICK.
This is a part of the Live Hard routine, which is the next step in the 75 Hard Challenge, a year long program that I have 30 days to decide to do after completing the first 75 days. Cold showers are upped to 5mins per day in Live hard…do able but man will suck!!
Crack into “Front of the pack”; on Apple Fitness + on at least one work out. I used Apples Fitness + programme to help me stick to my work out routines’s and keep me accountable. Apple Fitness + tracks my metrics with my Apple Watch, and or phone, and offers a different work out routine everyday if you choose. I chose spin classes, on my static bike.
It also offers meditation, yoga, running, strength, rowing, just to name a few different topics you can choose from. They update these weekly with new routines, music and trainers. It’s been awesome to have and I use it to help track my goals and keep me on track. I managed to only complete this task once. But that was the goal. TICK
Fasting and eating once per day. I didn’t do this everyday, but 99% of the time I did mange to tick this off. If I felt hungry I knew I should eat, so I would. I learnt when I was hungry vs when I thought I was hungry. Often we mistake hunger for dehydration, when often we just need water. Drinking 4 litres per day definitely helps with the fictional hunger pains. Once you get used to eating once per day it’s as easy as walking! HALF TICK
Loose 15kg - I ended up loosing 18kg, which I never thought was possible at the start, I thought maybe 10kg. So to cross this threshold, yip I was super proud of the result! I feel amazing and i’m really keen to keep going. This challenge is really life changing! TICK
Keeping active, keeping busy had been a key learning for me. When you're busy you don’t think about food, and you only eat when you're actually hungry. No grazing or loosing focus on your goals. When you have goals, stick at them and eventually over time you will get there. I found that writing a daily journal has also helped in venting my feelings and thoughts each day, and remembering each day as it happened. This has been really helpful as well, to go back and reflect on those tough days and what I did to push thru the pain and crappy days. I only started writing around 12 months ago, and it’s amazing how much more I have learnt about myself through documenting my journey and journalling. Even writing these posts has been enlightening and getting to share my experiences with my readers.
So where to from here?
Well I decided to take a week off to eat some chocolate, and do a little less of everything and spend some time reflecting on my journey and planing for the next stage. After my week off and a celebration with friends, I plan to get right back into the routine I have created for myself. A few tweaks here and there but largely the same routine. I have a holiday in September that I want to get under 110kg for, which happens to be 77 days from when you read this post. Go again? hmmm we will see. Im really motivated to keep this going and get my life back and be healthy and have a better fitness regime!
Andy Frisella and his wisdom to create the 75 Hard challenge, has literally changed my outlook and life. It’s going to be part of my yearly routine and to help keep me in check if I fall off the bandwagon! It has literally changed my life for the better. I feel amazing and I can only continue to improve and learn and grow from here. Thanx Andy its been unreal! You’ve earned my subscription and i’m promoting and sharing your channel to anyone who will listen.
If you want to learn more about this challenge go to Andy Friscellas website
or check out his podcast
Or for a more personal journey follow me over on Twitter, @Kesseler, i’m posting my daily journal as it happened in a day by day account. Or read my substack posts on Wednesdays to see a weekly breakdown of my journey.
Thanx to my friends and family for the support its been a tough road, but very rewarding to say the least.
Until next week..
Be Visionary, Enjoy the Journey, Keep at it.