Hey, there! I’m so glad you’re here!
How many of you saw the title of this post and thought “heart” should have been “hard?”
Several weeks ago, my good friend introduced me to a health challenge she was starting called “75 HARD.” I had never heard of it before, but since then I have had several other friends start the challenge, too.
If you, like me, have never heard of 75 HARD, you can check it out here. 75 HARD consists of 5 basic components:
- Pick a diet to follow (no alcohol, no cheat meals)
- Drink a gallon of water daily
- Complete two 45-minute workouts a day
- Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book
- Take a progress photo every day
When I first saw this challenge I wanted to jump on board immediately. I love a good challenge and always seem to be the most productive when I am following a regimented schedule. As I looked over the components however, I knew that it wouldn’t quite fit for the type of “healthy” I wanted to become.
What I love the most is the discipline this plan no doubt creates from sticking to something for 75 straight days. That is extremely attractive to me! I wanted to make some adjustments though in order to ensure that the habits I would be creating through this 75 day challenge would be sustainable afterwards.
So, I set out to tweak it a little bit. I wanted my focus and theme of my 75 day challenge to be centered around not just physical health, but mental and spiritual health as well. I wanted to really use these 75 days to create healthy, sustainable habits in my life.
75 HEART CHALLENGE:
- meditate/devotional – spend time each morning meditating and/or spending time reading God’s word. If you’re new to meditation, I highly recommend the calm app or Melissa Wood Health’s guided meditations.
- move body daily – although I would relish the opportunity to work out twice a day as the 75 HARD challenge encourages, it’s not something that is sustainable at this stage in my life. So, I am challenging myself (and you, too hopefully) to move my body daily. Moving my body can be swimming, walking, running, a yoga flow, or even a ClassPass workout. Whatever works for that day!
- read for 10 minutes – although I listen to audio books daily, I love the idea of challenging myself to read an actual book for at least 10 minutes a day. This should be easy to do whether you’re reading before bed or reading in the carpool line at school!
- drink 1/2 body weight in water – water intake is so important, but drinking half of your body weight should be an easy challenge!
- no screens 30 min after waking & 30 min prior to bed – After reading several books on developing good habits, one new habit has proved to be extremely beneficial to my mental health. Removing screen time before bed and right when I wake up in the morning helps me so much! It makes my sleep better and starts my day more focused and calm.
- pick a diet and stick to it – pick a “diet” that works for you! I personally will be shifting back to clean eating and removing processed food like chips and the like.
- alcohol only at social events – limit alcohol to social events only.
So if you’re looking to make some healthy changes in your life, I’d love for you to join me!
xo – anna