I’m officially one month away from completing the 75 Hard challenge, and I’ve been so bad about updating ya’ll! 😬 Between moving back home from my college apartment and then moving AGAIN because my parents got a new place, I’ve been a little preoccupied recently, but I wanted to take some time out to share some more lessons I’ve learned throughout this challenge.

Just for the record, I haven’t been measuring my progress by how much weight I’ve gained or lost. Since my goal is to gain more muscle, weight gain could actually be a good sign for me, so my main measure of success has been mental. If I feel good or if I feel strong, I’m doing something right. I also measure my resting heart rate, and I’ve been trying to lower that as well. Now, onto the lessons learned!

Lesson 1: Find what works for YOU.

Now, this lesson may seem self-explanatory, but this took me a LONG time to learn. For a while, I was exercising in the same way that those I followed were. I ran because the other people completing this challenge chose to run, and I even had a goal to lower my mile time to 7 minutes. However, running isn’t a workout I can sustain, and I ended up injuring myself trying to catch up to my peers. I was frustrated, and I was unmotivated to get up and workout because I didn’t like what I was doing.

Then, I discovered HIIT hop.

HIIT hop is a workout class created by Emily (@emkfit on YouTube), and it is a mix of HIIT style workouts and hip-hop choreography. Her themes range from boy bands to Latin music, and she even had a Disney workout that made me smile so much I forgot I was working out. Those were videos I could look forward to watching, and they made me excited to workout again. One night, I even did two of her videos in a row to make my 45-minute requirement, which pushed me way harder than a lot of my other routines had.

Finding what worked for me changed working out from something I felt I had to do each day to something I looked forward to. I’m still no fitness guru, but I’m definitely more confident working out now, and it’s become something I actually enjoy.

Lesson 2: Find Your “Why”

The hardest part of this challenge for me has been remaining motivated on the days that don’t go according to plan. When I’m working out at 10pm or when I’m up chugging water at one in the morning, it’s hard to remember why I’m even doing this in the first place. Finding my “why” meant digging deep and discovering what my goals were not only for this challenge, but also for my overall health and wellbeing.

Unlike a lot of people in the fitness community, I didn’t start 75 Hard to lose weight. I’m already at a healthy weight for my height, and I’m “skinny” in terms of societal standards. However, I’m what people call “skinny fat.” I have very little muscle, so even though I’m small, I’m extremely out of shape. Before this challenge, I couldn’t even run a quarter mile without losing my breath and killing my shins, and to this day, I still can’t do a single push up.

My goal for this challenge was to develop healthy habits that would gradually allow me to gain muscle and increase my stamina. I also wanted to improve my relationship with food, which I’ve struggled with for a long time. Through this challenge, I was hoping to become more intentional with what I ate and when, and I definitely think I’ve made progress in that regard. I also wanted to find workout programs that worked for me, and I wanted to learn what kind of workouts I needed to do in order to achieve my previously mentioned goals. 75 Hard was an educational effort for me as much as it was a physical one, and learning that really helped me center and figure out what I needed to do in order to make these goals a reality.

My Progress

Like I said, I haven’t measured progress in terms of weight lost or gained, so I’m not going to include any measurements here. However, I have noticed a lot of physical and mental changes that have shown me this challenge is making a difference.

For one, I have been able to test my willpower to its fullest extent. One of my dietary requirements was that I can’t eat desserts, and I spent July 4th staring at a homemade chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream icing. Making food for others is one of my love languages, so whenever I hear that something is homemade, I want it so much more because you can almost taste the time, effort, and emotion they put into the dish (cheesy, I know). Everyone around me was eating and commenting on how good it was, and I refused to eat any and ruin my challenge.

I’ve also become a lot stronger, which I can feel, but it’s also apparent in what I can do. For example, I used to not be able to do a set of plank rotations without falling at least once. I would lose my balance, my foot would slip on the mat, or my arms would hurt and I would have to take a breather before coming back to the exercise. Now, though, I can do rotations without thinking about it, even with an injured foot.

Oh yeah, I also injured my foot pretty bad during a workout, so that’s a physical change I’ve noticed.

My stamina has improved, which I learned by observing how I feel after each 45-minute workout and how many times I have to stop between exercises. That number has officially come down to zero, by the way, so I can make it through most of my at-home workouts without stopping to rest at all. My resting heart rate has also decreased from 72 to 64, which was cool to see, and walks or videos that used to leave me breathless now leave me tired but energized.

I’ve already seen so many changes, and I can’t wait to see what this last month will bring. I already decided I’m not carrying through with the Live Hard challenge after 75 Hard is over, but I will carry the habits and routines I’ve created in this challenge with me long after it ends.