Day one, you’re resting from the exhausting hours you put in at the gym. You’re taking this time to relax your muscles and to take a rest day. Day two, you don’t feel like going to the gym just yet, so you take another rest day to cool down. Next thing you know it’s been weeks, and even months.
Once I stopped going to the gym, it made the thought of going back even harder. Most of the time, it’s the lack of motivation to go back in there that keeps me away. I have been struggling to get back in the gym, but after having a conversation with my aunt, she introduced me to the 75-Day Soft Challenge.
So… what exactly is this strategy? The 75-Day Soft Challenge is a workout challenge where one supposedly develops a better healthy lifestyle from doing daily exercises for 75 straight days. This challenge aims to promote healthy eating habits and well-being altogether.
Step 1: Daily Exercises
According to Cleveland Clinic, it is recommended to engage in physical activity every day. Each of these daily exercises needs to be at least 45 minutes. The individual should engage in daily exercises to their interest. One day out of the week, you should include a rest day. A day to relax your muscles.
Step 2: Eating Healthy and Drinking More Water
Consuming better eating habits allows a person to have more energy. Eating better can result in a stronger immune system and an overall healthy body. One cheat meal is usually a positive thing to implement weekly, just to indulge in any sweet or savory treats you may be craving. You don’t need to stick to a strict diet. Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean eating salads every day. Look up a couple of healthy recipes to follow and give yourself an idea of what you would most like to fuel yourself with.
Besides eating better, drinking enough water can help with maintaining a healthier lifestyle. During this challenge, it is recommended to consume about 3 liters of water daily. Before starting this challenge, I had the worst eating habits and would routinely eat sweets/junk food when I knew it wasn’t what made me feel my best. I would feel super sluggish, and any short physical activity would result in heavy breathing. That’s when I knew I had to change my eating habits to help myself.
Step 3: Read or Journal
After coming back home from the gym, why not pick up a hobby? This challenge encourages a better mindset. Most challenges—at least the ones that I’ve seen— don’t encourage you to pick up some kind of hobby. Hobbies might include reading a good book or writing in your notebook about your day. Allow your mind to decompress after all the heavy and hard lifting you’re doing in the gym.
For me, focusing on a hobby allows for an even better mental health state. I recently discovered a book series that piqued my interest and ever since then, I’ve been wanting to delve more into reading. Getting into a good book has also helped me stay off my phone and focus more on the world around me.
Step 4: Try Not to Weigh Yourself
When embarking on a fitness journey, you might feel a desire to check the scale and track weight loss numerically. However, I find that this practice is not always the healthiest for my mental state. Weight tends to fluctuate, and reading the number on a scale every single time you finish up your day may put a strain on your health-oriented mindset.
As someone who constantly weighed themselves, I began to care more about the numbers I saw instead of the progress I was feeling. This is a bad habit I picked up because I was consistently discouraged to the point where I wanted to stop my weight loss journey altogether. It’s okay to feel discouraged, but it’s important to know that a number of a scale doesn’t define you.
Overall, the 75-Day Soft Challenge has had a really great impact on my mindset in relation t health. I find that it has helped me feel better and look better through the steps it offers. Everyone’s version of health looks different, so keep trying out new things and find what best suits you.