As I reach the 50th day of the fitness challenge I committed to, I have some feelings about the progress I have made. Have you heard of 75 Hard? It is a fitness challenge that consists of performing 7 tasks each day and if you are not able to complete them, you start the challenge again.
The tasks are one 45 minute training session that must be completed outside and one other 45 minute training session that can be performed anywhere. You are required to follow a diet that will improve your health. This could be any diet however, it must benefit you in some way. You are required to drink 1 gallon (4 litres) of water per day. This could be quite excessive if you are not living in a hot climate so I have been drinking 2-4 litres per day. I have been in Bali for the majority of the challenge and Bali has an extremely high humidity level at this time of the year. I have been sweating excessively during exercise but also just sitting eating lunch or reading. Which leads me to the next task and that is to read 10 pages of a book. This is an easy one for me as I enjoy reading however, this just reminds me to do it daily.
A task that I am not super keen on and looking forward to finishing on the 75th day is taking a daily progress photo. For me, I haven’t enjoyed this. To begin with, I was looking forward to seeing possible changes in my physique. However, once I reached day 25, I found myself picking the photo apart and feeling discouraged. I have continued with the daily photo but they are just put into a folder that I do look at and this has been a good thing for me.
The final task and one that has me reflecting the most is not drinking alcohol for the 75 days. It has me asking questions such as: What do I get out of drinking? If I was to not drink, what would I get out of that? Why am I sabotaging myself with alcohol? My health is so important to me, why is this one thing something I give a pass to? And many more.
I run and I go for long, long walks. I train with weights and I roll out my yoga mat for intense sessions. I eat a healthy, balanced diet and get all of the vitamins and minerals I need to sustain good health. I do this knowing, from a scientific perspective, that this will allow me to move, think, learn and feel good. This then makes me wonder why I would drink alcohol which is clearly not going to assist me with my health goals?
I have 25 more days of the 75 Hard challenge and I will be using this time to ponder whether I am to drink again.
