June 2024
Lessons from The 75 (Sorta) Hard
In the May newsletter, I wrote about the 75 (Sorta) Hard that myself and four friends did. In short, it required doing these 5 things daily for 75 straight days: drinking a gallon of water, working out for 45 consecutive minutes, reading 10 pages, taking a 3-minute cold shower, and avoiding fast food and sweets. Through no shortage of stubbornness, I came out on top. losing a point one day (a slice of cake on my birthday) to edge out MM by a single point out of a possible 375. It was a long, exhausting, and nail-biting 75 days but I’m glad I did it.
Here are some of the lessons that a few of us learned along the way.
1. What was the toughest part of the challenge?
BP: Toughest part, in the macro-sense, has been time management. Planning and getting in the 45 minute workout, reading 10 pages, and drinking 128 fluid ounces each day. Each of those takes planning and scheduling to get done. The toughest task has been drinking 1 gallon of water (by far). Especially if you fall behind. There's been more than a handful of days where I've had to chug 2 Yeti's worth of water after 8 PM. It leads to getting up quite a bit throughout the night.
MM: Finding workout time without it impacting family time with toddlers. During the week that meant my options were 5:30am or 8pm workout or I was cutting into the already tight windows. However, I learned that if I did a morning workout, 30oz of water during workout, and a cold shower before the kids woke up, I knew I could fill out the rest.
Me: Squeezing in that workout. My sleep took a hit with late-night rides on the stationary bike after the kids went to bed and early-morning workouts before they woke up.
2. What surprised you or what was something you learned about yourself during this?
BP: What surprised me the most was how much I missed sweets and fast food. I never thought I ate much of it to begin with. But once I couldn't have it, I was acutely aware of it anytime I was at a party with a dessert tray out or colleagues were going to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.
MM: I had more energy and don’t need much coffee. I was easily drinking 2-3 12oz cups of coffee per day before. With a morning workout, healthy diet, and hydration, I had way more energy most days and was down to 1 or sometimes no coffee. Also, the peer pressure factor was huge for accountability… I under-appreciated how much that factor mattered to me until we really got into the competition.
Me: I was honestly surprised I didn’t get hurt or sick. This was my biggest fear and without adequate rest (and while pushing myself in training for an upcoming Spartan race), I had to make a conscious effort to mix up my workouts, do proper warm-ups, and improve my recovery (a topic I’ll write an article on soon).
3. What do you plan to continue doing once the competition ends?
BP: First thing I'm giving up is the gallon of water. But I plan to continue each of the tasks in some form or fashion going forward. I'll probably go to the gym 5 or 6 days a week, and give myself a rest day. I'll also probably do 30-60 seconds of a cold shower, instead of the full 3 minutes. And I want to continue to stay on top of a healthy diet, but may give myself a cheat meal or two each week.
MM: Morning workout. I was not a morning workout guy before, even though I had tried in the past. I forced it during 75 (sorta) Hard to make it work with my schedule… now most days I wake up around 5:30 without an alarm and just go.
Me: Reading. I got into a great routine of reading in bed which I’ve never prioritized as much before. I love to read but I also learned to love the nerdy routine I created while reading in bed by using magnesium spray with my red light therapy device and a red light book clip.
4. Assuming you do it again, what will you do differently next year?
BP: Assuming the tasks stay the same / similar, I would be more proactive with planning when I read my 10+ pages. Reading 10 pages is probably the easiest task, but it's probably the second most time-intensive (behind the workout) and the one I missed the most. And it's because I saved reading to the end of the day to unwind before bed. It worked fine most days, but there were a few days where (for whatever reason) I'd get to bed and skip the reading.
MM: Read at lunch. It’s a nice mental break from work for 20 minutes and it alleviates the stress of having a task hanging over me for the day. Plus I found myself nodding off when reading in bed.
Me: Honestly, the closer I got to the end the more I didn’t want to do it next year. The whole challenge reiterated the importance of rest and recovery for me and I barely made any gains from a strength or endurance standpoint. That being said, if I did do it I would probably do some “training” for it before by upping the length and frequency of my workouts with a taper before the challenge begins. And I’d drink more water earlier in the day.
5. Any closing thoughts?
BP: It was a great first trial / iteration of doing this. I'd be excited to grow the participation each year and tweak the tasks.
MM: I down 2-3 belt loops so… it worked.
Me: I really hated drinking so much water everyday.
Brian
Stuff of the Month
Mind
Body
Dad
Father’s Day Gift Guide: 24 Ideas for the Health-Conscious Dad
Why Kids Need Life Skills (& How to Teach Them) With Katie Kimball
Guest Posts
I was featured in a Q&A article on Rambull.
I wrote an article for Spartan called Mindfulness and Mental Resilience: How to Overcome Obstacles on and off the Course.
The Growth Kit (Podcast)
Find the full list of episodes here. Follow The Growth Kit on Instagram. Subscribe to your favorite podcast player (Spotify, Apple). And please leave a review!
Best Of The Month
Here are some of my favorite things of the month.
Quote
"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (journal entry)
Podcast
Everything you need to know about the underrated topic of foot health. While this may seem like the most boring podcast in the world to many, I was captivated. After listening, I’m glad I’ve been wearing minimalist footwear, going barefoot in the house, and using toe spacers. I need to work on my big toe ROM though.
Book
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
I’m currently reading this for the second time. Simply a must-read for everyone.
Product
I’ve done lots of races ranging from Tough Mudders to stair climbs to trail races and marathons but I have yet to check off a Spartan Race. So, a couple friends and I bit the bullet and signed up for the Spartan 10k (+ 25 obstacles) in the Poconos (PA) this July.
For those who are unfamiliar, a Spartan Race is a grueling obstacle course race ranging from 3 to over 50 kilometers. They involve obstacles like wall climbs, rope traverses, barbed wire crawls, spear throws, and mud pits. While completing the race is an achievement in itself, there's no emphasis on speed or competition against other racers. The core Spartan philosophy centers around teamwork, mutual encouragement, and pushing yourself beyond perceived limits to conquer the course and become a "Spartan."
If you’re interested, use MINDBODYDAD for 30% off Spartan and Tough Mudder races for this year.
Things I’ve Learned
Mind
We’re Too Comfortable Too Often
Some stats from the book, The Comfort Crisis:
2% of people take the stairs when there’s the choice to take the elevator.
More than 70% of people are overweight or obese.
Only 20% of eating is driven by physiological hunger - 80% is just “I’m bored, I guess I’ll eat.”
We exercise 14 times less than our ancestors did.
We spend 95% of our time indoors.
Higher Reading Level Does Not Mean Better Writing
Shane Snow writes, How much does "reading level" matter? These are two of many interesting graphs in there.
100 Little Ideas
Morgan Housel compiled a list of ideas “that help explain how the world works.” Here are some examples:
Compassion Fade — People have more compassion for small groups of victims than larger groups because the smaller the group, the easier it is to identify individual victims.
Ringelmann Effect — Members of a group become lazier as the size of their group increases. Based on the assumption that “someone else is probably taking care of that.”
Cobra Effect — Attempting to solve a problem makes that problem worse. Comes from an Indian story about a city infested with snakes offering a bounty for every dead cobra, which caused entrepreneurs to start breeding cobras for slaughter.
Body
Sauna Benefits
According to recent research, sauna use might actually be a secret weapon for extending your healthspan—the period of life spent in good health. Sauna sessions mimic the beneficial effects of exercise, triggering a cascade of protective responses in your body. And the more you sweat it out, the better your body gets at handling stress and staying healthy. The benefits include reducing depression, hypertension, cardiomyopathy, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and improving HRV, the immune system, and preserving muscle mass.
This is what I use to get the benefits.
Endurance vs. Strength Training for Longevity? Yes.
This study found incredible benefits of working out as it relates to our longevity compared to inactive people.
Weightlifting was linked to a 9% lower risk of dying from any cause.
Weightlifting was associated with a 9% lower risk of dying from heart disease.
People who did both aerobic exercise and weightlifting 1–2 times a week had a 41% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to those who didn’t do either.
Weightlifting alone was linked to a 15% lower risk of dying from cancer.
Doing both weightlifting and aerobic exercise can make you healthier, reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, and early death with a 41–47% lower mortality risk.
Is Coffee Really Dehydrating?
Busting the coffee dehydration myth, for 4-cupers.
Dad
The Case for Late Bloomers
This article explores the concept of late bloomers and challenges the societal emphasis on early achievement, linking the pressure and the potential downstream effects such as rising rates of depression and anxiety among young people. Late bloomers often discover their unique talents in unexpected ways and the author emphasizes the importance of persistence, patience, and self-discovery on the journey to success, debunking the notion of a fixed chronology for self-determination.
"Blooming has no deadline. Our future story is written in pencil, not carved in stone. It can be changed."
Pediatric Society Says Kids Need More Risky Play
The Canadian Paediatric Society released a position statement saying that outdoor free play, particularly risky play, is paramount for children's holistic development. There has been a trend of decreased opportunities which stem from safety measures overly focused on injury prevention. The Society emphasizes reframing perceived risk as a chance for personal growth and advocates for promoting constructive discussions and encouraging outdoor risky play to address prevalent health concerns among children. Read The Anxious Generation for a deeper dive into this.
Teens with Knee Pain Switch to Barefoot Shoes for Less Pain
For adolescents with patellofemoral pain (PFP), treatment options are scarce. But here's a twist: swapping out traditional school shoes for flat, flexible ones could be a game-changer. In a recent study, wearing flat, flexible school shoes slashed knee flexion by 15%-35% during walking and 10%-33% during running, while reducing knee extension moment by 15%-40% and patellofemoral joint reaction force by 15%-40%. These findings suggest that a simple change in footwear could significantly alleviate biomechanical factors contributing to PFP, diminishing discomfort.
Check out this article for other benefits of minimalist footwear and where to start.
