how to get a grip on your chaotic new life! #75HARDCHALLENGE WITH AN INFANT!

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Seth came to me at 6 weeks postpartum with a “great idea” he wanted to try doing this challenge he'd just learned about called the 75 hard challenge by Andy Frisella.
He explained to me the rules:

1. Follow a diet
2. (2) 45 min workouts. Cannot be consecutive, one must be outside.
3. No alcohol or cheat meals
4. Take a progress picture
5. 1 gallon of water
6. 10 pages of reading

I told him I can hardly feed myself I have no clue how the F we could accomplish this, AND as soon as Seth told me the rules I immediately tried to explain how I would do it. Seth told me you can't modify and if you break any of the rules? YOU. START. OVER.
Trust me, I thought this seemed just as extreme as you do right now, Andy Frisella did a Podcast where he explains how and why and ALLL THE THINGS and this was what got me into it so give it a listen if you're considering!
So, I agreed, we did it, it WAS hard and I'm so glad I did it.

TWO TIPS:
1. MAKE A SCHEDULE – the days we had a schedule we rocked it. The days we didnt… we didn't.
2. Ask your partner if they will join you. Seth and I worked together to make this happen and that made all the difference!

Here is how we did it and what I learned:

1. Follow a diet:

You are able to choose whatever diet works best for you. For me above all else was my supply so I was NEVER going to compromise that. Oatmeal and oat milk for breakfast seemed to help this a lot (along with the freaking gallon of water).

We chose to do no dairy. I'm already dairy free but sometimes I dabble in Chocolate or the occasional fancy cheese… this meant no dabbling.
We also said no added sugars. Fruits are good for you peeps, I'm talking on the label where it says “sugars” and then “ADDED sugars” non of that. I also stayed away from artificial sweetener so this didn't mean I was going for zero instead of regular.
Then whole foods and what I mean when I whole foods I mean can you look at the food and know it's source? For example: Look at a pop tart, or cereal can you tell it's source? Nope. Look at a banana… it's source is a banana.

You could do intermittent fasting, you could do vegetarian, you could just cut the 3 worst things you eat. For us that would have been chips, chocolate chips and ice cream.

A few things I ate:
– Popcorn
– Oatmeal with cinnamon, chia seeds, banana, peanut butter and protein powder
– Sliced sweet potatoes baked with cinnamon and olive oil
– Our “go to meal” called Superfood Black Bean and Quinoa Salad (I add cucumbers)
– Baked Chicken Fajita
– We found an amazing sugar free bbq sauce and would have bbq chicken or grilled shrimp
– Hummus and vegetables like cucumbers carrots and peppers
– Coconut milk quinoa
– Two ingredient Egg & Banana pancakes

2. (2) 45 min workouts

One of our workouts was always a family walk.
I think this was my favorite part of this challenge. It was a time that Seth and I got to hang out with each other not on our phones every single day.

My second workout was always expecting an empowered.
If you've been following me for any time you know how much I love them. Especially for their postpartum workout guide. The first six weeks was all rehab!
Using this for 75 hard I usually had to do 2-3 rounds of the “strength” portion and I'd sometimes do yoga or just 45 min of stretching instead of the workouts to mix it up!
USE CODE: HEYSHAYLA for $10 off!

A couple of tips:

WEATHER: Download a weather app so you know if you need to get an early start to avoid rain or extreme weather.

SET A TIMER: You will likely be breaking up these workouts because of babe. Just set the timer and stop and start as you need. Idk if Andy would approve but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!

3. No alcohol or cheat meals

Alcohol: Look, if you're breastfeeding or co sleeping you're probably already restricting your alcohol consumption. Plus you're drinking so much GD water you can hardly take in any more liquids. Except coffee… there is always more room for coffee.
Starting 75hard 6 weeks after little lady was born means that I was Sober Sally for nearly a year! We found out we were pregnant August 20, 2019 and ended the challenge August 29, 2020.

Cheat meals: This one is tough, and things like the baked sweet potatoes and fruit helped with the sweets craving. It also teaches you about different brands (think the sugar free bbq and sugar free peanut butter).
With Covid there were not too many opportunities for us to go to events where we didn't have control over what we ate.
If we were going to a gathering we would bring food to share (and eat ourselves that fit in our diet).

4. Take a progress picture

I didn't know there was a 75 hard app, but if I had I probably would have spent the $5. Such an easy way to keep track of things. Because the progress is pic is one of the easiest and easiest to overlook the app would make sure you got all of your pictures done.
For me, this challenge was way more than the physical so while the progress pictures were cool, they were not the focus or the motivation behind doing this challenge.
I wrote the number on the mirror with a whiteboard marker so it was in each of my pictures.

5. 1 gallon of water

Grab yourself a cute gallon water bottle or at least a 32oz sized one (4 for a gallon) like a Nalgene.
At first it's kind of difficult to drink this much water because you pee… A LOT and with a newborn bathroom trips are extra, but you get used to it and you even start to crave the water!

6. 10 pages of reading