Summary

I completed the 75 Hard program by Andy Frisella. The program is designed to develop good habits and mental discipline by routinely executing a series of events every day for 75 days straight. If you fail one aspect of one day, you restart the program.

Program Details

The daily tasks are: daily progress pic, two separate 45 minute workouts (one must be outside) of your choice, drink a gallon of plain water, 10+ pages of reading a physical self-development book, perfect adherence to a nutrition plan of your choice, and zero alcohol/drugs.

Why I Started

The COVID pandemic kicked me in the balls from a mental perspective and created a significant number of hardships professionally and personally. I found myself in a place I didn’t like mentally and physically and decided to do something about it. I liked the structure of the program, the "restart if you fail at all" aspect, and the length.

Results

Significantly increased sense of mental control and well being.

Increased discipline in every area of my life.

Snug size 40 pants to easily fitting in size 34.

Starting Weight 253. Ending Weight 227.

Endurance is up significantly.

1RM strength is down 5% or so on squat/bench though I attribute that to its absence in my current training program more than anything. Hit lifetime deadlift PR on Day 75.

Significantly increased IOIs.

Hydrostatic BW testing of 13.7% at end. Did not test starting position.

Books & What *I* Got From Them

Atomic Habits - change your identity and your systems to change your life.

Mindset - treat everything in life as a skill that you can improve.

12 Rules for Life - carefully consider how you behave; it is who you are.

Thinking Fast and Slow - control both sides of the thought cycle to control your life.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree - hard work + cunning + nice = success.

Unfuck Yourself - anything you endure, you support and vote for.

My Methods

Tracking compliance: there’s a free app that’s very helpful for tracking the stuff each day.

Water: start early and preload as much as possible. Try to drink it all by 2p each day. Used a gallon metal jug for accuracy.

Workouts: one daily walk, usually with my dogs, and then a Strongman/Crossfit hybrid workout 5x a week. Walk 2x on weekends as my CNS is usually fried from Friday Strongman.

Reading: I read much more than 10 pages per day. The books were all excellent and I gained quite a bit from each.

Nutrition: I started the first 25 days with a 6-hour IF feed window. I didn’t see the results I wanted so I switched to keto with near-zero carbs for the last 50 days. I ate as much as I felt I needed for training purposes.

Alcohol: I’m in sales and entertain quite a bit. No one gives a shit if you don’t drink. That’s just in your head.

Sleep/Recovery: got a Whoop band for sleep tracking to ID what helps me and to track recovery. The obvious answers were obvious: consistency, get it cold and dark in the room, screw like a caveman right before sleep, lots of melatonin, got a white noise maker, etc.

Mental Model Changes

I used to subconsciously think that self-discipline was a feeling. If only I could “get more disciplined” as though people just woke up “feeling” disciplined. I realized quickly that ‘self-discipline’ is really just a descriptor of past behavior. It’s labeling the aggregation of their prior decisions and not much more.

I also used to focus on the cycle of Thoughts to Feelings to Actions. I’d watch motivational Youtube videos, hoping that would translate to me working harder in the gym or at work or wherever. I thought I needed to change my mindset to change my feelings to change my actions.

Now, I reverse the cycle. I just go straight to Actions. Why? Because your Actions are all that really matter. Plus, if you change your Actions, you will change your Feelings and your Thoughts. Your thoughts and feelings are far more easily influenced by your actions than the other way around. Want to feel good? Go for a walk. Want to think more clearly? Read a challenging book. Etc.

The little things, done consistently, are the big things. You are what you consistently do.

Link to Progress Picture Comparison

https://imgur.com/a/xPkaRd9

Next Steps

I’ll start the next Phase in a few days. It’s more of the same plus extra tasks each day. I like the structure of the program. For nutrition, I’m going to go with something very simple like g of protein per day. I need the nutrition aspect to accommodate a cut for a strongman competition plus day of and recovery afterwards. I am adding carbs back in for performance reasons.

I could say a hell of a lot more about any of this, especially the mental model changes, if anyone wants.