A challenge for 2024: 75 “hard” days

I got my inspiration for this challenge from a former high school classmate who is now very passionate about fitness and plant-based eating. She took up a HARD challenge, for 75 days. This apparently is a quite popular challenge, Forbes Health explains it very well here. In short, the challenge is for your body and mind, it has a few very clear rules, the most important one being that if you miss anything on any day, you must start all over from the beginning.

The challenge itself is called “75 HARD” and it moved that bit needed for me to mobilize. After Christmas and the new year, January with my birthday, I wasn’t really motivated to return to the true habits of eating healthy and exercising. It’s not that I regressed so badly, I’d say I kept many of the good habits I worked on last year, but a little more discipline and dopamine for the brain was what I felt was needed now.

As a matter of fact, I don’t believe in drastic changes, I believe in small, repetitive changes that create habits. Changes that bring you joy, that you can do with (some) pleasure every day. That’s why I took this challenge as an inspiration, and I adapted it to myself and the reality of my life – I still want to go and enjoy a cake at birthday parties, I still have one child that sometimes gets sick, stays at home and has her own agenda, or I simply want to go to a restaurant from time to time.

Therefore, I made a list of what I want to do every day for 75 days – some of them I already do, so I don’t believe I took on more than I can carry. And my objective is to be at 80%, accumulated over the entire period. That’s how much I think I’ll be able to achieve, still putting in the effort, with a result I hope for the most: the creation/consolidation of long-term healthy habits, like movement and writing. I don’t want there to be no exceptions, but that 8 out of 10 to be as I want it to be.

I leave you with my list here. I started on February 1, 2024. That first day was 100%. I’m curious how long it will take until the first exception – I mean, I know how long. We have a birthday this weekend ha-ha.

  • Start date: 01.02.2024.
  • Goal: 80% achievement

Do this daily for 75 days:

  • 10,000 steps
  • 1 gym session
  • No sugar (sweets)
  • No processed food
  • Eat vegetables/greens/’fruits’ at EVERY meal
  • 2l water/day
  • No alcohol
  • 10 min meditation/pray
  • 7-8 hours sleep
  • Read 10 pages/day
  • Write 1 page/working day
  • 10 min does which
  • Vitamins & supplements
  • 1 picture of daily progress & kg
  • Do something for the first time during these 75 days

I still don’t know what I will do for the first time in my life in these 75 days. I’m looking for inspiration. There are many things that I haven’t done, but I don’t have a list to check either, so it remains to be seen.

I challenge you too to mobilize towards something specific, whatever it is that you want. For the simple reason to make your days more meaningful, beautiful and to have reasons to smile. Enjoy!