My Experience with the #75Hard Challenge | Half-way Through

Have you heard about the #75Hard mental toughness challenge? If not, I encourage you to listen to this podcast by the creator of it, Andy Frisella, which will give you the foundational knowledge about the challenge before diving into hearing about my experience with doing it thus far.

Background information

Last year, when we moved from New York City to Denver, I spent four months job searching, and in those four months, I was so much more sedentary than my lifestyle had been while living and working in NYC. Over the course of 2019, I didn’t feel much like myself – the lifestyle I had lived for nearly 5 years was gone, and I felt kind of…blah – a bit uninspired, a bit lost. So many changes all at once felt quite overwhelming to me, and from bad habit, I turned to food to cope.

Plus, throughout last year, I gained 20 pounds – it was a gradual weight gain that I didn’t truly notice until my pants started to feel tight last fall. Once I stepped on the scale and saw the number, I was like, “Oh shit…” my 5’2 height and petite frame do not do well with so many extra pounds.

After that, I was motivated to figure myself out but didn’t know where to begin. I was increasingly feeling blahh from my work life and simultaneously feeling crappy about my body and self-esteem. Finally, in January, I took a much needed girl’s trip to Belize and there, I had the time and space to evaluate my choices. It became quite apparent that I needed to quit my job and find something that brought me joy. Once I decided to quit my job, I knew the next step was to focus on my physical and mental health and wellness.

My friend Kayla had been posting about #75Hard throughout last fall and into the holidays, and I was so intrigued by what she was doing. She’s someone I admire and look up to, and her and her husband seemed to be crushing this challenge – and in New York City – and over the holidays! If they could do it there during that time of year, I could do it here, I told myself.

After picking her brain, and learning more about the challenge, I brought it up to Cesar, and he also became interested in it. We decided that we would start the challenge on April 1st. My last day at my job was March 13th, and that was the day that all the Coronavirus chaos started in Denver. We quickly went into self-quarantine and were at home 24/7. Because of this, we decided to get a jumpstart on the challenge and began on March 21st.