The 75 Hard Challenge: a shortcut to change your life, or setting yourself up for failure?

I love a personal challenge.

My favourite thing at the start of each month is setting myself goals, and at the end of each month I love reflecting on my achievements. Quarterly resets, annual reviews - however frequent I fancy - I look within myself and test how I can be 1% better every day. 

At the end of 2024, I saw people on TikTok getting ready to start ‘75 Hard’ in the new year. This is a set of criteria you stick to for 75 consecutive days with the aim to create routine and healthy habits. 

The rules:

• Diet of choice: no alcohol, no cheat meals. Mediterranean, whole-food and animal based diets are popular choices. 

• Workout: twice a day for 45 minutes, one of which should be outdoors 

• Drink a gallon of water a day (3.7 litres) 

• Read 10 pages of non-fiction a day

• Take a progress picture every day

Technically, if you fail to adhere to all five of these steps, the 75 days should be restarted. 

An evidently very demanding challenge, many people have crafted their own versions ‘75 Medium’ or ‘75 Soft’: one workout a day, for example, instead of the drastic change the above rules require. 

Not quite ready to commit to the challenge, I did my own 30 day challenge from December 27th 2024. This consisted of daily workouts, a mostly wholefood diet, no alcohol, 3 litres of water, 1 caffeinated drink a day, reading and journaling daily. 

Once those thirty days were up, I tweaked my rules. I allowed myself to drink (admittedly limited) alcohol again, added 8000 daily steps, and remained consistent with the other rules for a further 75 days. 

My body did not change. I did not lose weight like I saw in a lot of other 75 before and after videos. What I did gain is discipline, knowing my purpose, and knowing when to listen to my body. 

Discipline 

During my 75 Medium challenge, I was extremely focused. Each morning I would journal my intentions and motivations, and each evening I would journal reflections/habit tracking. I ticked off each day in the diary from 26th January to April 11th 2025. I have never been so intentional with my habits and goals before. 

Purpose 

Non-fiction reading led me to lots of questions about purpose and passion, which left me on the edge of burnout towards the end of February. I was trying to balance a full time job, 75 Medium, a social life, running, writing, hosting networking events, and saying yes as much as possible to new opportunities and new hobbies. 

It was through an essential chat with one of my bestfriends where I realised my purpose doesn’t need to be anything bigger than myself. My purpose is to be a good friend, a good sister, daughter and girlfriend. 

Values

As soon as I came to this realisation, I returned to what is important to me - running, coffee, and connection. So, I reintroduced more caffeine to my life and began to prioritise time with my friends and family as opposed to dedicating so much time to new people and new hobbies. 

Connection

With that being said, around about the same time, I met the UrY run group. Every Saturday morning we go for a 5km run, grab a coffee, and have meaningful chats about our passions. THIS is my tribe I immediately thought to myself. This is the kind of lifestyle and journey I want to be a part of, as if in answer to my frustrations of trying to juggle too many identities. 

Read more about the lessons I learnt through running in this post: https://open.substack.com/pub/amystanborough/p/the-mental-benefits-of-running?r=omx4j&utm_medium=ios

But what happens when you can’t stick to your diet? Or you’re working overtime so you don’t have time to do two workouts plus 10,000 steps? 

You fail. 

At least that’s what the challenge seems to suggest. Towards the beginning of the challenge, any skipped habit or ‘rule’ not obeyed led to crippling guilt. It would be easy to think what is the point in carrying on. But this is why you don’t make the same mistake two days in a row. If you do, there is always a new week or a new month to reset your goals. This is the lesson that 75 Hard does not teach you, and one I had to learn along the way. I reclaimed self-control by adjusting my goals. Why limit the coffee I drink when it brings me so much joy, for example. 

Rest is productive 

75 Medium taught me to listen to my body. During that period at the end of Feb when I was exhausted and fighting a mental battle of who am I and what am I really doing this for, I spent the weekend in Lincoln with my family. I took my book and journal, but left the trainers at home. It was a weekend of drinking herbal tea outdoors, enjoying a proper lie in, and eating hotdogs and cupcakes for my nephew’s 1st birthday. It was exactly what I needed to get back on track. 

Schedule rest days when you need them. Allow yourself to enjoy time with friends and family without those restrictions in place. In order to have good wellbeing, you need to live well. The demanding consistency of 75 Hard is unrealistic and you should be able to get back on track at your own pace. 

While I learned to rest, I also learned when to push myself harder. 8000 daily steps became easy, so I upped that to 10,000 steps. I have discovered some fab podcasts, read lots of non-fiction, have enjoyed trying new fruits and veggies, and it is thanks to 75 Medium that I decided to start sharing my habits on Substack and discover this wonderful online community. 

What will life look like post-challenge?

Workouts:

I will go back to exercising 5-6 days instead of 7 days a week. I realise now the importance of rest days for effective workouts. I will continue to train for my half-marathon. I will stay consistent with my morning and evening walks as I love how they mimic a commute. These walks are a chance for me to listen to podcasts, think about my goals, and get ready for and unwind from my day at the office. 

Diet:

This has been my favourite part of the challenge. I have loved trying new foods while trying to stick to a whole-food diet. My plates have been so colourful in 2025! I very rarely crave junk food or sugar anymore and will continue eating ‘clean’ as much as possible. Moving forward, I am going to stick to the 80/20 rule to tackle some of my feelings around food guilt. This rule says that 80% of the food you eat should be whole-foods while the other 20% may be takeaways, sweet treats, eating at restaurants etc. 

Hobbies: 

I have been journaling and reading daily for a very long time now, not just 75 days. However, I have enjoyed sticking to these habits with intention thanks to the challenge. I have found myself thinking about the seasons more too. In spring for example, I want to plant my own flowers and cook a recipe using seasonal farm-shop  ingredients. My screen time is down because I am writing and reading so much more, and am choosing to use social media much more intentionally. These are all things I hope to maintain.  

Would I recommend doing 75 Hard? 

No, though I would recommend inventing your own version of the challenge. Stick to smaller time frames, or no time frames at all.

My initial 30-day challenge gave me motivation to continue setting goals in 2025. It felt (and ultimated was) more attainable to stick to 30 days than the prolonged 75 days, therefore kept me motivated. If you attempt your own version of 75 Hard, I would advise you to split it into three 25 day challenges, and review your goals or ‘rules’ after each 25-day block. You could even enjoy a rest weekend in between each block if you need to. 

Or, use the 75 Hard rules to motivate your goals. Instead of exercising every day for 75 days, train yourself to run 20km or lift a particular weight in 75 days. You have a numerical goal to work towards in a certain amount of time, rather than the bore of monotonous routine. Or ease that pressure even further without the time limit. ‘I will train myself to run 20km’ is more than enough, providing you have an action plan. 

75 Hard can create feelings of guilt or failure if you do not stick to the rules. I would recommend coming up with an action plan for how you want to react to these feelings. Talking to friends and family when you feel low or demotivated will remind you of the importance of connection. Good wellbeing is only possible when you balance it with letting your hair down and living well.