I’ve been thinking about doing the 75HARD challenge.
If you’re not familiar with 75HARD, it’s a fitness challenge that first did the rounds years ago and has had a bit of a resurgence this year. The rules stipulate that every day, you must:
- Drink 1 gallon of plain water
- Perform 2 workouts of at least 45 minutes in length, at least 3 hours apart, one of which must be outside
- Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book
- Follow a diet (any diet, no cheats)
- No alcohol
- Take a progress photo
This isn’t a new thing, I’ve considered it several times, and even went so far as putting it on my 40tbif list last year before changing my mind and swapping it out for something else.
I love a challenge, this kind of thing keeps me focused, motivated and moving in the ‘right’ direction. Ollllld readers will recall me completing previous challenges like the whole30 and Dry January. To be honest, I don’t even think 75HARD sounds that hard (as someone who is already working out at least once daily, drinks plenty of water, eats a good diet etc) So why did I remove it from my list?
Because the creator of 75HARD is a fucking bellend. A MAGA-supporting, woman-hating, “I’m so rich and you could be too” hustle bro who makes my skin crawl.
When I’ve talked about this with other fitness enthusiasts, the general impression is that it’s ok, because He doesn’t benefit financially from people participating in the challenge, and “everyone knows” it’s 100% possible to separate someone’s art from the artist themself. Except I’m not so sure about that personally, and I really don’t want to appear — even for one minute — to be supporting a person like that.
I could recreate the challenge under my own terms, but if it’s the rigid rules of the original that appeal to me then I would effectively just be renaming it, which is pointless as it’d be instantly recogniseable as the original challenge.
I could do it privately and not tell a soul, and then nobody would know to make the connection in the first place, but I get the feeling that I would be a whole lot less successful if I didn’t share it to gather support to keep me going. (And this post rather undoes the “not tell a soul” part.)
Who knew that taking part in stupid online challenges came with a side order of ethical dilemma, eh.
I am just over a week out from Newport marathon. It should be the ”finisher”, to round off one of my 40 before forty goals. It’s a compromise on “Run a marathon in every major UK city” (because it turns out many major UK cities don’t have marathons) in which I decided I would run… read full entry »
Alright, simmer down, I know I’m not really a “CEO” because I don’t have a board of directors or a c-suite or anything like that, but “day in the life of an autistic freelance web developer turned LTD company managing director” as a title was just ridiculous. Work with me here guys. I’m writing this… read full entry »
I was umming and ahhing about writing a 2024 review lookback style post. I didn’t want it to end up a rehash of all the shitty bits, which these things inevitably end up being, but at the same time there’s no denying that some of the things that happened in 2024 had Consequences. Fundamentally, the… read full entry »
I recently entered the Shropshire Shufflers’ Severn Bridges 10k in Shrewsbury (after a little bit of a kerfuffle where it wouldn’t accept my affiliated club name) and ran with Gaz to celebrate his birthday. Never expected Gaz to choose a 10k to as a birthday celebration and yet here we are; I like to think… read full entry »
I have to confess that I’ve never been much interested in watching sports. Odd perhaps, for someone who participates and competes in three separate disciplines, but – aside from catching the odd snippet of a big Euros game or highlights of the Olympics shared on social media – watching other people ‘play’ has just never… read full entry »
Last week I successfully climbed Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak, as part of item 3 on my 40 things before I’m forty challenge. I’ve been fascinated with the idea of climbing mountains since I saw a talk by Ed Viesturs (first American to climb all 14 of the “eight-thousander” mountains, and the 5th person to… read full entry »
I travelled to Turin, Italy for WordCamp Europe 2024 with Gaz last month. This was the first time we’d spent any meaningful amount of time together since our separation – not counting hourly taekwon-do lessons – and so I thought was going to be interesting. Turns out it was fairly uneventful, insomuch that it was… read full entry »
Got “recognised” by two different people on reddit yesterday as “that blogger” and god, if it hasn’t made me miss the olden days of blogging. Write any old crap that comes to mind, publish, receive immediate feedback and support from peers and friends. Do it all again a few days later. I’m not sure at… read full entry »
It is now approximately 2.5 months since Gaz and I mutually agreed our relationship was no longer viable as it was, and just over a month since he moved out. I found the first few days after he left sweet AF. Could have crowned me the Queen of Smugdom as I woke up easy breezy,… read full entry »
