I’m Doing The 75 Hard Challenge (While On a GLP-1)

It starts today.

Photo by Ray Shrewsberry on Unsplash

In case you missed it, I’m doing 75 Hard again:

[embed]I’m Doing The 75 Hard Challenge Again (But Not For Weight Loss This Time) And I’m adding in one extra item to the challenge to help me save money…medium.com

In that article I mentioned how I wouldn’t be doing updates, but I changed my mind. (I do that a lot.) I doubt they’ll get many reads, but I decided to do updates because it helps me stay accountable.

Plus, it gives me something to write about.

During this last month while I was thinking about this challenge, I thought about moving it to July 1. That’s because something came up where I’ll be traveling to Ohio to see family at the end of June.

I didn’t want to be a pain in the arse with my “Oh, I’m doing 75 Hard so I can’t have that delicious desert, wine, or chips. Sorry you went through the trouble.”

And there’s going to be a house FULL of people, so I thought about how getting in my two 45-minute exercise sessions and reading would be tough.

It made all the sense in the world to wait and do this on July 1.

But…

I had the strongest urge to start it when I said I was going to start it. Plus, the entire purpose of 75 Hard is to do it even when it’s inconvenient. That’s the mental toughness part of it.

It’s not supposed to be easy!

And I can figure out the details of my trip. It’s just for a weekend, it’s not a big deal.

So, here I am.

The eating rules I’ve set up for myself.

In the last article, I give all the details about what 75 Hard is, so head over there if you have no idea and you’re interested to know.

Here’s the TL;DR version of the rules:

1. Do two 45-minute workouts at least 3 hours apart. One of the workouts has to be outside.
2. Read ten pages of a non-fiction book
3. Drink one gallon of plain water
4. Take a progress photo
5. Don’t consume alcohol
6. Follow a diet (no cheat meals!)

(I’m also adding an extra one, which is no gambling. I explain why I did that in the other post.)

These are all pretty easy to understand, except “follow a diet” because that doesn’t mean anything. You make it mean what you want.

After doing this challenge a couple of years ago, I discovered it’s easiest if you come up with your food rules ahead of time.

Here’s what I plan to do:

1. No chips, crackers, cookies, ultra-processed junk food.
2. No desserts like cake, doughnuts, ice cream.
3. No deep fried foods. (If I pan fry at home, that’s fine because I can control things.)
4. No Necco wafers:

Photo taken by the author.

5. None of these or sugar-free candies and mints:

Photo taken by the author.

These mints are fine:

Photo taken by the author.

The reason is that it’s easy to overdo it with the other flavors, even the sugar-free ones. But it’s hard to overdo it with pure mint. It’s too “spicy”!

5. I’ll allow myself to eat a square or two of 90% dark chocolate per day, but no chocolate chips, Doves, or anything like that.

6. Count calories, but not for weight loss. Let me explain more on that one…

Doing 75 Hard on a GLP-1.

I’m taking compounded Tirzepatide, which is a type of GLP-1. It’s a weight loss injectable that I’m sure you’ve heard all about by now. The brand name version of what I take is Zepbound.

I absolutely love that stuff! Here are seven reasons why that don’t even include weight loss.

It helped me finally lose the 15 pounds I’ve been trying to lose since what feels like forever! Now the goal is to maintain the weight loss, but start working on building more muscle.

So, I’m counting calories to:

• Make sure I’m eating enough
• Make sure I’m getting enough protein

My goal is to hit at least 100 grams of protein per day, but I’ll work on pushing it more more towards 120–130 grams per day.

I lost weight, but now I’m looking really flabby, so I’ll also be making it a goal to do at least three to four weight training sessions per week. (If I don’t hit it, I’m not going to make myself start over. This is just an extra personal goal.)

This is a different approach than the first time I did this challenge, and I think it’s going to be hard for my brain to not want to “diet.” Although, I still want to stay within my allotted calories most of the time, so it’s not too different.

We’ll see how it goes with that along the way…

When there will be updates.

I will likely do a rundown every week. Again, this is mostly to keep myself accountable. I tend to start things and then give up too easily, and writing things out helps me stay on track.

If by some chance you are interested in keeping up with this to see how I do, I’ve created a subpage on my Health Kick publication called — you guessed it — 75 Hard.

I moved all my old articles from my last challenge here too.

Where I’m starting from.

I stepped on the scale this morning and it was at 127.3. My “normal” weight on Tirzepatide is around 126. I’ve been eating some extra salty foods, so this should go down a bit.

I wouldn’t mind gaining a bit if it’s muscle, but I know that takes a long time, so I won’t expect that to happen during this challenge.

I haven’t been posting before and after pictures, and that’s for two main reasons:

1. They look so bad, and it’s embarrassing! And everything on the internet is there forever, and it’s always something I consider.
2. I don’t look that different. Losing 15 pounds feels like a lot (I can tell the difference in my energy and the way my clothes fit), but it doesn’t look like a lot. So there’s not much to show.

But…

If I can improve the way I look significantly, I would be open to posting them.

However, I turn 50 this year, and there’s only so much improvement I can make. My skin tone is totally different than when I was in my 20s and 30s, and my body shape is different after having kids.

My main goal is to feel as good as humanly possible. Looking as good as possible plays a role in that, but it’s more internal than external.

Anyway, that’s enough for now. See you next week if you decide to follow along!

P.S. I also want to talk about alcohol because I have some thoughts about it after doing a one year no alcohol challenge, and then going back to drinking it. But I’ll save that for next week.

75 Hard will give me a solid chance to stay focused on my goal of creating a mini digital empire, which I’m documenting via this “Secret Project.” Follow along with me here → https://hustlinghousewife.com/secretproject/