27 Crucial Tips For Surviving The 75 Hard Challenge (2024)

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This post is all about 75 hard challenge tips.

If you want to complete 75 Hard, here are the best tips to do so.

In case you don’t know what 75 Hard is, it is a 75 Day mental toughness challenge created by podcast host, motivational speaker, and supplement company owner Andy Frisella.

The 75 Hard program was designed to help people form healthy habits and boost their mental fortitude and confidence. It is not intended to be a fitness challenge or fitness program.

Here are the 75 Hard challenge rules. Any person attempting 75 Hard must do the following activities each day for 75 days:

1. Two 45-minute workouts (one of the workouts must be outside)

2. Drink a gallon of water

3. Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book (audiobooks are not allowed)

4. Follow a diet of your choosing (no cheat meals or alcohol allowed)

5. Take a progress picture

I personally completed 55 days of the 75 Hard challenge. I decided to quit the challenge because I felt it was no longer serving me.

I didn’t quit for a lack of willpower (easy for me to say haha). BUT simply, I felt that after 55 days of the challenge, I had gotten what I wanted out of it (practice with self-discipline, increased confidence, and physical changes).

When I decided to quit, I was about to celebrate my boyfriend’s 30th birthday, and it just didn’t seem worth it to me anymore.

The positive changes that 75 Hard brought to my life were evident, though. I lost body fat, gained confidence, my skin was brighter, and I didn’t ever wake up with any hangovers or hangxiety.

For many reasons, it was worth it. And I may try it again someday.

Here are my 75 Hard update posts if you want to see how my journey went, my results, and how I felt during the challenge:

75 HARD Challenge Rules and Review After 15 Days (2023)
75 HARD Before And After Day 30 (With Progress Picture)
75 Hard Challenge Review After 45 Days

55 days is a long chunk of time, and so I’ve put together all of my best tips that I felt helped me succeed for as long as I did with 75 Hard!

Quick Navigation:

General 75 Hard Tips

Tips For Your Two Workouts

Tips For Drinking 1 Gallon of Water

Tips For Reading 10 Pages

Tips For Following a Diet

Tips For Taking a Progress Picture

Learn more about 75 Hard

75 Hard Challenge Tips

General 75 Hard Challenge Tips

Here are the best 75 hard challenge tips for this transformative mental toughness program.

1. Get the 75 Hard app to track your progress each day. This is perhaps my #1 tip. The app costs $6.99, but it is WELL worth it. Every day, you have to check off each of your activities and this will help keep you organized and focused on what you have left for the day. By the way – the price of the app seems to increase now and then so just keep this in mind (when I bought the app a few months ago, it was $4.99).

2. Keep your mindset long term. This is not a short challenge (it’s 2.5 months long), and the sooner you accept that, the better!

3. Expect there to be a few days where you’re just “over it”. There will be days along this challenge that you don’t want to do the 75 Hard challenge anymore. Expect these days to come, and know that they are just part of the process. Do your best to not succumb to these thoughts if you want to complete the challenge.

4. Share that you are doing 75 Hard with your friends and family or social media to help hold you accountable. You may be more inclined to stick to 75 Hard if you know that people are watching your journey. If you think telling people will help you stay motivated, then by all means share the fact that you are doing 75 Hard with people in your life.

5. Check-in with yourself often. If at any point you feel that the challenge is detrimental to your physical or mental health, don’t be afraid to slow down or quit the challenge entirely. Your health should come first.

6. Remember your “why”. There are zero compromises with 75 Hard and strict rules. A lot of people ultimately give up because they forget why they wanted to start 75 Hard in the first place. Remember why you started – to combat your poor self-esteem, to form new habits, to improve your current fitness level, etc. Whatever your “why”, remember it and write it down somewhere you’ll see it every day just in case you forget.

Tips For Your Two Workouts

Here are my best tips for completing your two workouts each day with ease.

1. Get your outside workout in as early as possible. You never know what is going to happen with the weather, and the last thing you want is to have to walk or run when it’s storming (trust me, lol). Plus, early morning workouts can be really enjoyable and a mood-booster.

2. You do not need to do two “hard” workouts every day. Active rest days are key. You can always do a brisk walk for your outdoor workout and then yoga indoors. You shouldn’t feel like you need to exert maximum energy twice a day every day for 75 days.

3. Find workouts you truly enjoy to avoid boredom. You will likely be doing all kinds of physical fitness activities during 75 Hard, so it’s important to find a few that you actually like. Whether that’s running, playing pickleball, basketball, attending dance classes, etc., make sure you choose something truly enjoyable to do throughout the challenge or you may get very bored.

4. Switch up your routes to avoid boredom. Again, if you plan to do the same walk or the same run every single day for 75 days, you will more than likely get bored of it. Be prepared to change things up.

5. Invite a friend to your workouts. 75 Hard can get lonely if you are doing it by yourself. If you don’t have any friends who actually want to do the 75 Hard challenge with you, at least invite them (or go with them) to a workout so you can have a little company. Plus, having an accountability partner is always helpful.

6. Don’t be afraid to try new workouts. 75 Hard gives you an opportunity to get creative with your workouts. Try crossfit. Download Classpass and try a class that you’ve never done before. Take advantage of Orangetheory’s free class for newbies and see if you like it. Go kayaking or paddleboarding. Don’t limit yourself to one or two types of workouts unless that’s absolutely necessary for you for whatever reason.

7. Prepare appropriately for your outdoor workouts. If you’ll be working out in cold weather, make sure you have a hat, gloves, and whatever else will keep you warm. If you’ll be in the hot sun, prepare for that workout with sunscreen and a hat. You want to make yourself as comfortable as possible for your 45 minute daily workouts outdoors.

Tips For Drinking 1 Gallon of Water

Here are the best 75 hard challenge tips for drinking a gallon of water as easily as possible during this 75 day challenge.

1. Get a water bottle you actually like to drink from. Drinking water isn’t always easy, so you have to figure out what works for you. Do you drink water more easily with a straw? Do you prefer a large water bottle or something smaller?

This is the water bottle that I used (and loved) for 75 Hard. It’s a Stanley Cup, which is very trendy right now, but despite its popularity, I really love how functional it is and how it makes drinking water much easier.

2. Know that 1 Gallon = 128 ounces. Make sure you know how to get there. If you don’t want to have to do the math every day to tally up how many ounces of water you have drank, it may be best for you to use a gallon-sized water bottle!

3. Fill up your water bottle first thing in the morning and start drinking early. Unless you want to chug a half-gallon of water before you go to sleep at night (I don’t recommend this), it’s important to keep the task of drinking a gallon of water top of mind at all times. That means starting to drink water as soon as you wake up in the morning. If you can do this, you will thank yourself later in the day when you’ve already drank most of your gallon.

4. Drink water during your workouts. 2 birds 1 stone. There were many days where I walked on the treadmill, drank water, and read a book at the same time. What they don’t tell you is that 75 Hard can be pretty time consuming, so you should jump on any opportunity to knock multiple things out at a time.

5. Whenever you pick up your water bottle, try to do a few “chugs”. It can be helpful to have a little rule in your head that every time you pick up your water bottle, you take 5 big gulps (or something like this). This’ll help you drink your water faster.

6. Finish your gallon as early in the day as possible to avoid having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It’s not very fun having to get up in the middle of the night every night to go to the bathroom (this was me the first 25 days of 75 Hard haha). The earlier you can go finish your gallon, the less likely you are to disrupt your sleep.

Tips For Reading 10 Pages

Here’s the best way to read 10 pages every day for 75 days.

1. Choose books you actually like to avoid boredom. Here’s a list of nonfiction books for 75 Hard that I recommend reading.

“Winning” by Tim Grover was the first book I read during the 75 Hard challenge and it was great for a boost of motivation, if that’s something you could use at the start of your challenge. It helped me stay focused, too.

2. Don’t leave your reading til right before bed when you’re at your most tired. It’s so easy to just push off your reading till the end of the day, but the best thing to do is to do it as early as possible. You really don’t want to have to read 10 pages when all you want to do is fall asleep – trust me!

3. Read during your workouts to get more done in the same amount of time. Like I said above, read whenever you can. If you can read while walking on a treadmill or while you’re on the elliptical, do it! This way, you are completing two of your daily tasks at the same time.

4. Go to your local library to avoid spending money on books. Instead of spending money on new books, go to your local library where you can check out books for free! Another option is to ask friends and family for any nonfiction books that you can borrow.

5. No audio books allowed. Remember, no audio books are allowed for the 75 hard challenge. The books you choose must be a tangible, physical book.

Tips For Following a Diet

Here are my best tips for following a diet every day for 75 straight days.

1. Get CLEAR on what you will and won’t be eating according to your diet. The diet I chose for myself was no fried foods and no sweets, but I often felt that my rule of “no fried foods” wasn’t specific enough, so I was constantly confused as to what was “OK” to eat. Eventually, I decided that pan-fried foods were OK, but deep-fried foods were not. It took me too long to determine this though, so make sure that going into the challenge you are clear on your diet and there’s no room for confusion.

2. Find healthy snacks that you love. Because you’ll be giving up comfort foods, you’re more than likely going to want something to fill its place. While that may be near impossible, you can always stock up on healthier foods that you do enjoy.

3. If you miss alcohol, opt for mocktails. There are all sorts of non-alcoholic drinks out there nowadays that taste great and no one will even know you’re not drinking alcohol if that’s something you’re worried about!

Tips For Taking a Progress Picture

Here are the 75 hard challenge best tips for taking a progress picture every day during this transformational mental toughness program.

1. Get a tripod. This will make your life so much easier and will make taking pictures a breeze. I simply had my tripod set up in my room, and whenever it was most convenient for me, I would attach my phone to it and take a picture in no more than 10 seconds!

This is the tripod I use and highly recommend. Its great because I can use it for so much more than just progress pictures, like for taking pictures with friends, and even for my therapy sessions haha.

2. Take your progress picture immediately after one of your workouts/before you shower. This is the best time to take a progress picture because usually you are in workout clothes or clothes that are perfect for a progress pic. You may look a little sweaty in your pics (lol) but it’s better than having to take the time and change out of your work clothes or pajamas!

3. Don’t try to take perfect progress photos. Unless you plan on posting all of your pictures on social media and you are concerned about a certain aesthetic, there’s no need to take perfect progress pictures. Like I said before, 75 Hard is time consuming enough as-is, you don’t need to spend more than a minute snapping your progress pic!

Learn More About 75 Hard

Here are some ways you can learn more about the 75 Hard challenge.

1. Read the actual 75 Hard book to learn all of the details of the challenge and for any questions you might have. You can find the 75 Hard book (written by 75 Hard creator Andy Frisella) on his website.

2. Visit the 75 Hard program’s website. Here you will also find many more details and information regarding 75 Hard.

3. Listen to Andy Frisella’s podcast, Real AF. On his podcast, Andy Frisella interviews people who have done 75 Hard and he also talks in great detail about the program itself.

4. Search for the #75hard hashtag on Instagram. On Instagram, there are thousands of posts of people doing 75 Hard. It’s great to look here for motivation and to find other people who are doing 75 Hard along with you.

Final Thoughts

My hope is that these tips help you succeed at 75 Hard and complete the challenge in its entirety.

Bottom line: 75 Hard isn’t easy by any means, and it can feel very long at times, but I have no doubt that you will experience positive changes to your mental and physical health along the way. Good luck!

This post was all about 75 hard challenge tips.

Other posts you might like about 75 Hard:

20 Best Book Recommendations For The 75 Hard Challenge

75 HARD Challenge Rules and Review After 15 Days (2023)

75 HARD Before And After Day 30 (With Progress Picture)

75 Hard Challenge Review After 45 Days