How Is The 75 Hard Challenge Transforming Me? (2024)

I write this on Day 21 of my 75 Hard Challenge. I am below going to talk about the five significant changes I can see in myself from Day 0 to Day 21. If you know nothing about the challenge give this a read — 75 Hard Challenge

First, let me give you some context —

Who am I?

I am Bhavya Mehta, just another Software Engineer who loves to do too many things and is trying to squeeze in time for everything he loves to do.

Why did I take up this challenge?

Because I saw a pattern, I would do the right things 70–80% of the time, eat right almost every day, but every now and then have all the wrong things one could, workout almost every day, but once in a while stay rooted on the bed like a tree and not move at all, and so on so forth. I just wanted to get away from the word, “almost”, and wanted to try to be a person who would associate himself with the word “always”.

Okay now that you know about the who and why, let’s talk a little bit about the challenge itself. We need to complete five simple rules, I say simple, because honestly, they are simple, the problem is our current version of the world, which is complex, and hence these rules seem super hard.

So what are the rules?

1. Follow a Diet (No junk food / No cheat meals / No alcohol) for 75 days
2. Drink 1 gallon of water, every day for 75 days
3. Reading 10 pages of any non-fiction book, every day for 75 days
4. Two 45-minute workouts every day for 75 days, one of these workouts has to be an outdoor workout.
5. The last one, take a progress picture each day, and no brownie points for guessing, for 75 days.

Seems obsessive, or borderline insane, as the challenge has no rest days or not even one day of pizza, but we can debate about that later. I like the challenge because for me it was a way to say always, and not almost. And if we rewind life by around 10–15 years, most people were eating healthy, were moving for more than one and a half hours each day, reading something useful (at least a newspaper), and were surely having a lot of water. With the rise in desk jobs, digital media, restaurants, and packaged food, following all these rules daily, now seem like a distant dream.

The problem is not the rules but the fact that our world has become abundant in things we don’t need, and us, that we believe we need all of them.

Okay good talk, let’s dive into what changes I have witnessed —

1. I am slowly becoming a person, who identifies as a healthy person — A person, who does not miss out on being active each day, a person who is conscious about what food he eats, and a person who would make time for his physical well-being no matter what.
2. When the going gets tough, the tough get going — I was always someone who would not run away when the times get tough, but during this challenge, there have been days when I was super low on energy or had a very bad day at work, or just felt dumb to stick to all these five rules. But I kept going, all I would tell myself is I can give up tomorrow or the day after, but I can’t and won’t give up today. I love this a lot because I am of the simple ideology that you can’t lose if you don’t quit.
3. Discipline — I would never associate myself with discipline, rather I would be shameless and say I am the opposite of whatever discipline is. But with this challenge, I have been day in and day out focussing on doing these five tasks diligently and with all my heart. Can I be better at it, hell yes, but for now the win is that I have done all five tasks every day for 21 days.
4. I wish to believe I am becoming wiser — One because I am reading this amazing book, The Power Of Habit, and two because I am able to focus a lot of my energy on what is important to me. I spend all my time, aligning myself to my work, focusing on my daily tasks, learning what food is right for me, reading about how to attain financial freedom, helping people I can, unlearning my toxic patterns, and so on. What drives is me the simple fact that, today I am no one, but I don’t wish to die a no one, and I am going to do all in my power to be someone.
5. Finally, I have been falling in love with the process — I don’t know where I am heading, or if is there even any real change happening. I don’t even know if I will ever get somewhere, but what I know is I’ll keep walking till a path exists. I’ll not get into numbers about my body fat percentage or my muscle mass, all of that is a by-product. But I for sure feel a lot more confident about my body when I now walk in a room. Somehow this challenge has given me that space to be more comfortable with myself and is pushing me to become more of who I really wish to be.

Some other fun stuff that I never thought can happen, I got a nightmare about eating fried food by mistake and how I failed the challenge. I watch a food recipe video every day now. I feel so much more active, I have been able to play badminton for two hours straight late at night, after a full day of work, hitting the gym, cooking food, etc. I have been sleeping better, only one day in these 21 days, I felt I did not sleep well. Also, I am able to say no to things that don’t align with me way more easily now. All in all, it has been an enjoyable journey, and in a nutshell, it is a challenge made of simple rules that are super difficult to follow every day.

So, let’s see where I get with this, I’ll try to write again maybe if I reach around 38–40 days. Till then take care peeps, smile a little wider, and laugh a little harder, I know human life is a pain, but let’s stick around, we can’t go down this easy.

The quote I wish to leave you with :D

I don’t know where am I going, nor do I know if I’ll ever get anywhere, but what I know is I’ll keep walking till a path exists — Bhavya Mehta