Man in the Arena with Craig Spear

75 Hard

• Craig Spear

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Have you ever wondered how far you can push your mental and physical limits? Join me as I share my  journey through the 75 Hard program, a rigorous 75-day challenge crafted by Andy Frisella. 

You’ll learn about the five rules I followed—strict diet, dual daily workouts, a gallon of water, daily reading, and progress photos—and how these rules catalyzed profound change in my life. 

I also share my personal strategies, such as kickstarting my day with a workout and reading session, which helped me secure early wins and maintain momentum. This episode is a goldmine for anyone feeling stagnant or seeking to elevate their fitness game.

Did you find this episode helpful insightful or motivating? If so, let's connect! You can find me on....

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to man in the Arena. This podcast is for men over 40 who want to master their health and weight loss goals once and for all, with innovative strategies, practical tools and insightful interviews. My goal is to help you overcome your limiting beliefs and achieve your optimal health. It's time to look good, feel good and do better. Hey guys, welcome back to man in the Arena. Thank you so much for tuning in this week.

Speaker 1:

Today I have a really great episode where I'm going to share with you my experience completing the 75 hard program which was created by Andy Frazilla. But before I dive into that, I just want to say that if you're stuck and you're not quite sure what direction to head in next, this is going to be a great episode for you because I believe that when you create a challenge, something to focus on, something to put your energy into, that's the best way to take action and get out of that place of feeling stuck and not quite sure where you're headed. At the same time, if you're crushing it, if you're getting in your workouts, you're eating really well, your sleep is awesome, you're just really in a good flow. This is also for you because I think a challenge is a great way to level up and get out of your comfort zone again and do something even greater than you're already doing. So, no matter where you're at, this episode is for you.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're not familiar with 75 Hard basically what it is? It's a 75-day program that requires participants to follow a strict set of rules designed to challenge their mental and their physical endurance. And here are the five key rules that you have to follow over the course of the 75 days. The first rule is you have to adhere to a strict diet. That means no cheat days. It also means no alcohol. Now, the diet is specific to the participant. It's up to them, but they have to adhere to it strictly for every day. For 75 days, my decision was to eat no sugar and no flour. I already don't drink alcohol, so that was an easy one to adhere to, but I had been struggling to really maintain consistency when it came to eating no sugar and no flour. I'd go through really good stretches of not eating it and then I'd kind of fall back a little bit. I'm sure you can relate to that, but in any event, I decided no sugar, no flour. The next rule is you have to complete two 45 minute workouts every day, and one of these workouts has to be outdoors, regardless of the weather. The third rule is you have to drink a gallon of water every day. Number four you have to read 10 pages of a nonfiction book, so it has to be self-help in nature. And number five you have to take a progress photo every day.

Speaker 1:

One of the things I decided early on as part of my strategy was I was going to get done whatever I could get done as early and as often as I could. So what does that mean? Well, I decided I was going to get a workout done first thing in the morning. I was going to drink a liter of water first thing in the morning. I was going to read my 10 pages of a nonfiction book and I was going to take that progress photo first thing in the morning. I was going to read my 10 pages of a nonfiction book and I was going to take that progress photo first thing every day. In fact, I set up a tripod with an old camera and that way it was already ready to go. So I didn't have to do one extra step just to take that progress photo, or I didn't have to rely on someone else to take that for me.

Speaker 1:

So if you're going to do a challenge similar to this, or maybe your own 75 hard, that is a strategy that worked really well for me throughout the entirety of the 75 days. What that meant was, you know, usually I still had a workout to do later on in the day, and certainly you know, I still had to adhere to my no sugar, no flour diet for the entire day, and then I had to get water in over the course of the day. I was going to drink four gallons of water first thing in the morning, but I wanted to have as many early wins as I could, and that really helped me out. Now you might be asking yourself, like a lot of people ask me why would you do something like this? You know, why would you sort of make the sacrifices necessary? As I mentioned a couple episodes ago, the timing worked out really well for this 75 hard. For me to start on April 1st would take me to the middle of June, which it did when I was going to do my 5x4x48 challenge, and so the timing just worked out really well and the 75 hard really prepared me for that.

Speaker 1:

The other reason I wanted to do this was I just I've heard about this challenge before. It was something that I've always wanted to do and I like the consistency and the discipline required to complete this challenge. I think there's a lot of value in that. You might've heard me talk about before on this podcast that I'm not a fan of all or nothing thinking. I'm not a fan of a lot of these all or nothing challenges, but I've since softened a little bit, having completed the 75 hard, and here's how my stance has kind of changed.

Speaker 1:

If you go into a challenge like this or another challenge, like a dry January or something along those lines, I think they're really great, as long as you approach the challenge with the mindset that you want to learn more about yourself, you want to learn more about what holds you back, your weaknesses. You also want to look at improving your strengths, and so it's not just about willpower, where you show up every day, you do the work and you move on and you sort of can't wait for the finish line. I've heard this before with dry challenges, where people will say I can't wait for the finish line. You know, I've heard this before with dry challenges where people will say I can't wait to have that drink, or with 75 hard. You know I'm following a no sugar, no flour diet. I can't wait for the end of 75 hard and I'm going to have, you know, a piece of chocolate cake and I think that kind of defeats the purpose. So if you're going to do a challenge like this and certainly this was my mindset is I wanted to look at what can I continue, what can I take away from the challenge and keep in my life even when the challenge is over, and so that took a lot of reflection. It took a lot of showing up every day with the mindset to improve.

Speaker 1:

One of the things I learned throughout the challenge itself was there's really only two main areas that were really difficult. The first one for me was getting in enough water. A gallon every day felt like a lot of water at times. Sometimes it felt pretty easy to get to that, other times it wasn't, and there'd be times where I was literally sitting on the side of my bed chugging water just so that I could get to one gallon. So that was for me, by far the biggest challenge in this 75 hard. The other thing was if there was a day where I forgot to do the reading or I put it off for whatever reason. That wasn't that often, but I'd forget about reading and then I'd have to find time in my day, usually later at night, to get that 10 pages of reading in. Now, that wasn't that often, but that came up a few times and same with.

Speaker 1:

You just kind of get into the groove of the challenge and you forget certain elements of what you're supposed to do every day. And one of the most important things that I think really helped me overcome not forgetting to do every day, and one of the most important things that I think really helped me overcome not forgetting to do something like take a progress photo is I printed off three sorry three sheets that kind of I crossed off a day. You know, crossed off my daily progress. So, you know, did I complete each one of these rules and that really helped me stay focused and disciplined. It was on my fridge, it was there. We talked about it in my family usually every day, and that you know. If you're going to do this, that's another part of the strategy I highly recommend. You can actually download Andy Frazilla's app I think it's called 75 Hard and follow along that way, but I just decided to do it the old fashioned way and cross off the days as I went. So those were some of the challenges that I faced.

Speaker 1:

There's some of the strategies that I had and if I could kind of explain what the journey was like throughout the 75 days, I kind of break it up into 25 day chunks. The early days, the first 25 days, was pretty easy. I was highly motivated. It was through April, so there wasn't a lot going on, we weren't traveling, I was just locked in on business and coaching clients, so I didn't really have a ton of things distracting me. Middle of the program, that's where things started to shift a little bit. You kind of get into the flow, you get into the groove and again, that's where I found I was most susceptible to potentially failing and missing something because I was just in such a routine. The other thing that was happening during May was the weather was changing and so the days were getting longer and that can kind of mess with your focus and discipline as well.

Speaker 1:

Now the final stretch, the last 25 days, I also found challenging because my focus started to shift towards completing the 5x4x48 challenge and preparing for that. So I wouldn't say I faced any significant challenges like travel or major life events or anything like that. It was just the daily grind, the daily routine of staying focused, even when things kind of get monotonous and I think that's true for a lot of people when they do any kind of program exercise program, following a diet Is you feel really motivated in the beginning and then that kind of wears off and you have to be prepared for that. You have to understand that the consistency is more important than the excitement of what you're doing. I'll say that again the consistency of what you're doing needs to be more exciting than what you're doing. You got to find the joy and the consistency in the routine and if you have that built in, great. If you don't, something like the 75 hard is really going to help you develop that skill.

Speaker 1:

So, as I mentioned, there was different challenges. You know I didn't really have any physical challenges that I had to overcome. Most of it was just mental and preparation and staying focused. As I said, if this is something that you are considering doing, if you're kind of you know sedentary right now, you're kind of feeling stuck, my best advice is maybe pare down the five rules down to three and then that way you'll find it's much easier not even easier, but it'll give you a much better launch point to succeed in the long run, because I think that's what's most important is a lot of people, and one of the difficulties, or I guess, the downs run Because I think that's what's most important is a lot of people, and one of the difficulties, or, I guess, the downsides, of this challenge is that you could be halfway through doing really well.

Speaker 1:

You miss one day and now your challenge is over. Do you have the mental strength to go back to the start and do it again? And I see that's where the problem with one of these challenges is, being all or nothing is. Do you give up all of the positives and the good routines that you've developed along the way just because you've had one misstep? So if you compare it down to maybe three rules, maybe you decide I'm going to read 10 pages a day, I'm going to do one workout and I'm going to sort of no alcohol for 75 days. That would be a great place to start, right. If you're already kind of really doing well, maybe you consider doing the full challenge itself. So, as I mentioned earlier in this podcast, I really believe in the value of challenges as long as you have the right mindset going into it. You're not just using willpower and you want to learn something about yourself and you want to continue doing something that you learn about yourself, or one of the things that you're doing once the challenge is over. And so I'll give you an example.

Speaker 1:

Personally, the challenge ended for me on June 14th and I was in the middle of doing my five by four by 48 challenge. So there wasn't a lot of celebration or fanfare surrounding both of those challenges. I just kind of completed both and that was it and moved on with my life. Right, you know, I had some congratulations from family and friends and that kind of thing and some clients, but it wasn't this major sort of celebration. Instead, what I wanted to do was take as much of this going forward as I could, and so I can tell you I continue to read 10 pages a day. That's something that I never did before, but I see a ton of value in I continue.

Speaker 1:

I can't say that I've drank a gallon of water every day, but I've definitely seen a huge improvement of how much water I am drinking every day and I'm staying committed to that. And, lastly, I'm most proud of the fact that I am drinking every day and I'm staying committed to that. And, lastly, I'm most proud of the fact that I am not eating sugar or flour since the challenge ended, so that's something I've continued doing. I just see so much value in that. I really feel so much better just focusing more on plants, on protein, lean proteins, and not really eating anything processed or that comes in a bag or a box or that has sugar or flour in it. So if you ever want some advice or some more detailed information, you want to set up your own challenge, I really, really encourage you to reach out to me, because this is something I see evolving in my own coaching practice, where I'm helping guys create their own challenges, create things that's been on their bucket list, that they want to do, because when you do that, you become a different person.

Speaker 1:

You have to show up every day in order to go and achieve that. Personally, I did the 5x4x48. I've done the 75 hard, and next up on the list is the rim to rim Grand Canyon hike, slash run, slash walk in October. So that's what I'm going to be doing, that's what I'm working on right now, that's what I'm training for, and so I'm really excited. Again, I have to level up. I have to focus more on my diet, my exercise, my sleep, my mindset, and that's what I love about creating these challenges. That's all I have for you guys today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Let's look forward to next week and in the meantime, let's keep doing better so we can look better and feel better. Thanks, guys. Now is the time to take action and change your life. Head on over to thespearmethodcom and discover how I can help you get started on your path. Better health and weight loss.