Two 45-minute daily workouts. One gallon of water. 10 pages of a nonfiction book. A diet. No “cheat meals” or alcohol. For 75 days. And if you mess up, you have to start from the beginning.
Sound like a lot? It’s supposed to be. The program, called 75 Hard, is meant to build mental toughness. Some say that rigidity is what makes it great, and others say that makes it problematic...
How do you get 10 pages of a nonfiction book as a grueling challenge? That's just sad. That should be part of a program called 75 Easy. Two 5-minute daily workouts. One quart of water. Only one drink and one dessert per day. For 75 days.
I don't even get what's supposed to be hard about 75 Hard, other than the dangerous over-chugging of water. The workouts? We're told "the workouts can be any level of intensity — even a walk." And at least one of the "workouts" must be outdoors.
If this were my prescription of 75 Hard, I'd say one of the workouts must be outdoors at sunrise. And I'd put my reading challenge at a higher level than "non-fiction." There's some super-easy non-fiction out there.
And I don't like the insinuation that fiction is easier than non-fiction. It depends on the book. Here's a Goodreads list of easy-reading non-fiction. And here's a Goodreads list of the most difficult novels.
Here's the subreddit for 75 Hard. Actually, it looks like a nice framework for people to support each other and keep motivated.
The article says that the exercise requirement might be excessive. It's "630 minutes of exercise each week... more than four times the amount recommended by federal officials." I went to that link and what is recommended is that you get at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. The "active" range, according to the government, is 150 minutes to 300 minutes. Beyond that, you're "highly active." I'm surprised that the government thinks you're "highly active" if you go for two 45-minute walks every day.
Also, we're told there might be "mental health ramifications" to a program that calls for no exceptions. That's dangerously similar to the behavior people with eating disorders.
Finally, there's the idea that you should make up your own system, not adopt something created and promoted by others. I like that! I have my somewhat amorphous system, which I could firm up into a no-exceptions program of a specific length. How about you? Let's hear your version of 75 Hard.
Posts
92 comments:
Althouse asked...
How about you? Let's hear your version of 75 Hard.
"A nice big bowl of milk."
How about you? Let's hear your version of 75 Hard.
75mg of Viagra?
For mental toughness, ten pages of Ludwig Wittgenstein and forget all the rest!
Most of the most difficult books don't seem all that difficult. Pynchon and Joyce are truly difficult, but Dickens? Some of the books aren't difficult so much as boring-- although I guess navigating boredom is one of life's great difficulties. The list of "easy" non-fiction books seems to have a decided slant and many of them sound really boring. I'd rather read Finnegan's Wake than Rosalynn Carter's autobiography. I read more than half of the difficult fiction books but only two of the "easy" non fiction books.....I've got no problem going for long walks. The challenge is walking past bakeries and especially that one BBQ place. The human body is exquisitely designed to store calories and sleep late. It's nature's plan, and one should think twice about violating it.
You know what I have started doing daily, and it helps me to focus better on stuff I want to do? I conjugate French verbs in a notebook, with an actual pen, in cursive, which I try to slow down enough to ensure it's not just legible, but nice to look at. I can even do this while listening to a podcast or watching a movie. At some point I am going to run out of verbs to conjugate, but at that point, I am hoping to be fluent, I am close, and I will find something else to do, but I think that it will always involve a pen and paper and a certain amount of time set aside each day.
I was doing two one-hour walks a day, but I got a stress fracture in my arch, and that put an end to that, and every time I try to work back up to it, now that its healed, something else seems to come up to knock me back, but I am not giving up on it. That also is a nice way to calm the mind. And by calm the mind, I mean I would like to be able to approach a golf shot with nothing in my head but calmness and useful golf thoughts. Golf is another activity that rewards and encourages calm focus and exercise, and fellowship, though it is much maligned as a "sport."
Two 45-min workouts sounds like a lot. The rest does not.
And even the workouts sound doable if it’s 1 cardio, 1 resistance and you come into it in decent shape.
A lot of the Goodreads "most difficult novels" are not so much difficult as long. "War and Peace" is very long but not at all hard to read, especially if you do it in parts (and the novel does pretty neatly break into parts). And--oh my God!--"A Tale of two Cities", Dickens shortest and most tightly plotted.
Just about anything by Joyce or Faulkner, though ...
A gallon of water seems like a lot. Maybe no time to read - too much running the the toilet.
I have read a number of the “hard” fiction books at different points in my life. High school, college, Ayn Rand phase, Kafka phase. But a surprising number I recalled from the Classics Illustrated Comics my mother bought when I was in elementary school. So, thanks mom.
"A nice big bowl of milk."
I can't believe the 3 Stooges made me laugh out loud for once.
the sad thing, is people think this is "hard"..
meanwhile our best and brightest are ENDANGERING their LIVES.. By going on a 12 hour hunger strike
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/2/12/hunger-strike-solidarity-protest/
More than 30 pro-Palestinian Harvard students participated in a 12-hour hunger strike Friday in solidarity with 17 students at Brown University
THINK of it!They went ALL DAY.. ONE DAY without eating a single bite of food!
After their morning breakfast, at 5 am (when they got home from the bars), these HEROES didn't hold down a single mouthful of food.. ALL THE WAY UNTIL 5pm.. When they got off their couches, smoked a few bowls, had a shower, ate some cereal.. And went back out to the bars.
HEROES
You WON'T see those fascist Israelis doing that! At least not the ones that were raped and murdered
10 pages of reading a nonfiction book is good advice to the curiously large amount of people who never read any kind of book.
In working with people over the years to put together what's called a spiritual Rule (a monastic term that is applied to setting up a set of disciplines to build spiritual growth), some people can be very aspirational but not live up to their goals.
The key is something that is a challenge but not pushing someone too far. Like someone out of shape shouldn't say they're going to run 5 miles a day. But if they commit to 6000 steps of walking a day, that's a push beyond their current lifestyle without being overwhelming.
For me, when I'm in a good groove, I have a 100 page non-fiction goal. And 1000 words of writing. Sometimes do a lot more, but even on busy days I could push myself to get at least this. Both reading and writing are really a lot like running. A person has to build up endurance for both and it's not much use demanding more than what's mildly uncomfortable--when it's also about self-motivation. But after time the amount that defines mildly uncomfortable expands into a pretty large amount if a person keeps at it.
Everyone needs to build a set of disciplines that match their current actual habits and then build from there. And it sounds like this program is intended for the average American to get started and commit to a new kind of mindset.
"For mental toughness, ten pages of Ludwig Wittgenstein and forget all the rest!"
Even one page of serious philosophy or poetry would be enough of a challenge. It's not the pages, it's the time and the degree of engagement.
I can't believe the 3 Stooges made me laugh out loud for once.
The dance scene in "Hoi Polloi" is pretty funny.
But non-fiction could be something like All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
tim in vermont said...
I conjugate French verbs in a notebook, with an actual pen, in cursive... but at that point, I am hoping to be fluent,
You will know you are fluent in French when you can understand this French sentence. French Fluency Test There is audio for this test.
Something about "Noises!" really amused me (even though it was obvious how that was going to go and I did not enjoy watching Curly eat glass).
75 Hard probably doesn't have many Farmer adherents.
Neither fiction or non is hard if written well. Perhaps it's the 'getting going' on it that's being implied. I find most nonfiction tediously written.
It's interesting there's such an overlap in what people call fiction and not.
Currently reading Spherical Harmonics in p Dimensions. Ten pages in a day, and really understanding those pages, is not really possible. At least for me. But then, that's why I'm reading it.
Goodreads list of the most difficult novels. There are some toughies on it, for sure - Gravity's Rainbow (especially), Ulysses (for sure), The Magus (delightfully confusing), Love in the Time of Cholera (a very little bit maybe, because of the magical realism), etc.
But Catch-22, Anna Karenina, Moby-Dick, Blood Meridian, Doctor Zhivago, The Fellowship of the Ring...and most of the rest? Really? Not exactly pulp fiction, but "difficult"? Hardly.
Ann Althouse:
It's not the pages, it's the time and the degree of engagement.
I present e.e.cummings as a counter.
The updated for the Biden-era version of "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" is: How kindergartners need to be encouraged to embrace their gender confusion and submit to they/them pronouns.
I'm surprised that the government thinks you're "highly active" if you go for two 45-minute walks every day.
I don't think any individual day is the "hard" part, it is doing all of this for 75 consecutive days with no cheating. This would likely prove difficult for someone with a full-time job (which generally takes up more than 8 hours per day plus commute).
One of the points behind this may well be that it establishes a habit in the people who do it so that these activities become a part of their normal life. Studies find that you need to do something for around 66 consecutive days to develop it as a habit.
"How do you get 10 pages of a nonfiction book as a grueling challenge?"
Jeeze, Louise- have you met your average American, Althouse?
Ten minutes with Aquinas’ Summa Theologica would disabuse you of two misconceptions of postmodern man: 1) that religion is the opiate of the masses and 2) that postmodern man can hold a candle next to Age of Faith man.
I think a lot of poor reading is happening because the reader is concentrating on the number of pages read. I would recommend reading something that is good on the sentence by sentence level and then reading those sentences without putting any time pressure on yourself. Instead of reading a sentence and rushing on, read the sentence and, upon understanding it basically, think of something more that is there to be found, and if what you find is good enough — good enough that this is a book worth reading on a sentence by sentence level — the read it again and find something else in there.
First thing I do after getting up is either 40+ push-ups, or 10 pull ups. (Alternating days)
One cup of coffee with a dash of heavy cream, no sweetener. No food till lunch which could be as early as 11:30 or as late as 1:00 pm. And it’s whatever my wife chooses. One tall glass of whole milk after my meal. I don’t drink any sugared beverages. And I only drink if I’m thirsty.
A light supper consisting of 1 tin of sardines and a 4 ounce cup of ready to eat rice (any variety).
I like to play my mandolin for an hour, and the book I’m currently reading is “Quit” by Annie Duke. Previous book “Thinking in Bets” same author.
Monday thru Friday I’m a 2nd shift Toolroom supervisor in a motor lamination stamping plant. And starting this semester I teach a lab class called “Prototyping” to St. Louis University engineering students (2 classes back to back) on Wednesday mornings.
I’m considering retiring from my “real” job in May so I can have more time for fitness and reading.
Amen, Ann.
For mental (and emotional) toughness, I would add 10 minutes listening to ideas you don’t agree with.
Wittgenstein is the guy who couldn't figure out if chairs really existed.
So, have at.
Goodreads are fops. They confuse scholarship with name-dropping, fads, and just bad prose.
tommyesq said...
I don't think any individual day is the "hard" part, it is doing all of this for 75 consecutive days with no cheating.
Studies find that you need to do something for around 66 consecutive days to develop it as a habit.
i've found, that the more you walk (lift weights, whatever).. The more you do it, the more you do it.
If i've gone for a couple of miles walk Every day, for 10 weeks.. It's Really Hard, to NOT go for a walk today (this was me last year). This Jan, when we had two 10 inch snows a week apart.. I missed a week of walking. This month, i've getting back to walking, but it's Still an effort.
Going 75 days straight (and starting over if you skip), means not missing a single day.. RIGHT from the start. This would be hard for anyone.
[some of you will reply: It's Easy For ME! i already walk 2hours every day! which shows you're missing the point]
It's The STARTING that's hard. No one's going to fail on day 74.. They're going to fail on day 4
"we're told there might be 'mental health ramifications' to a program that calls for no exceptions. That's dangerously similar to the behavior people with eating disorders."
Perhaps that's true, but there are also people who need that kind of rigidity. Celebrate diversity.
watch the movie 28 Days, with Sandra Bullock.. It's not about this.. but it's pretty funny.
ps. It was pretty EASY for gilbar to quit drinking and smoking pot.. I was in a coma for 3 days, and in the hospital for 6 weeks. By the time they told me to never drink again, i was long past 28 days sober
Speaking of the beloved Three... You'd have to be an aficionado to get the level of complexity in their aggressive choreography. I did a paper analyzing them on that (sans Shemp and replacments).
Turns out, if you weigh the physical insults, the reactions and the responses in the emotional (obviously subjective) and the physical, you find that over their career Moe took more real and lasting scripted abuse than Curly or Larry. Larry was simply a very low percentage and rarely truly high physical at all (other than hair pulls).
Curly obviously took more numbers but Curly was also apparently invulnerable and destroyed the attack simply by being (saw teeth destroyed instead of pate). Moe however did more than "Ow, ow, oh look.", he suffered actual and lasting scripted pain.
Moe's aggressions towards the others were spontaneous because he was basically just a shit of a pizmire. Curly however, would actually plan attacks on Moe and they would involve what would normally be lethal circumstances (like pushing a suspended I beam to hit Moe's skull) and Moe typically went down and 'felt' it way more than Curly did.
I think most of their humor depends, not from the physical actions but from Curly's apparent invulnerability. And, of course, their disparagement and abuse of the 'elites'.
All my stunt guys had to watch (yeah, lotta forcing there) The Stooges and we incorporated some of their dynamics. You don't want the clown knocked into a back flip by a battle axe to lay there like a dead dog. He bounces up, the crowd laughs.
"... the read it again and find something else in there."
= then read it again...
I'm recommending careful reading but I'm not proofreading.
That breaks one of my rules.
"I think a lot of poor reading is happening because the reader is concentrating on the number of pages read. "
My Kindle App sends me congratulatory messages for reading X number of pages. The first time I got one I thought "this is effed up". And what's with "X minutes to finish chapter"? Very strange.
Gravity's Rainbow is not difficult. V is difficult. Ulysses is difficult.
I'm reading a popular biography of Harry Truman,(he was a good boy.) and an anthology of papers about the Visigoths. There's a copy of the Iliad and the Odyssy in the bathroom.
The 45 minutes of exercise is going to be difficlt. And the water. I pee enough already.. Maybe Althouse should assign us a book She already challenged us to rise early and go forth.
Let's do this!
The job of "75 Hard" is to generate revenue for the owner/operator of the business. If it appears to be "hard" but not too costly, it will generate revenue at little cost to the owner/operator.
Too hard and nobody will sign up because ... it's too hard to do. Too easy and nobody will sign up because ... it's too easy to be any good.
How does the owner/operator make money? From the sign-up page ...
By clicking → SUBMIT, you agree to receive marketing text messages from 44Seven Media at the number provided, including messages sent by autodialer. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies.
Enjoy the spam and robocalls.
That Goodreads non-fiction list contains at least one novel (by Barbara Kingsolver). I only know that because it was a recent victim of my wife's book club.
I read virtually no fiction nowadays, and if I was a self-challenger I would not read new things but re-read the old ones with fresh old eyes.
"How do you get 10 pages of a nonfiction book as a grueling challenge?"
Classical Electrodynamics, by J.D. Jackson. You wouldn't last a week.
Ann Althouse:
I think a lot of poor reading is happening because the reader is concentrating on the number of pages read. I would recommend reading something that is goo.....
I agree with Yancey Ward. Teachers have been neglecting making our youth knowledgeable and capable of using that knowledge for so long the average person can't read the more advanced works and don't even know they exist.
Hell, I forced my daughter to give me a book report over summer on War and Peace when she was eleven. She hated the assignment (no doubt because of the topic) but got intrigued by Russian writing and loved Anna Karenina. I would hazard you couldn't find one out of hundred today who could do that.
Average reading comprehension level in the U.S.: just queried
The average American is considered to have a readability level equivalent to a 7th/8th grader (12 to 14 years old). Four in five U.S. adults (79 percent) have English literacy skills sufficient to complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level inferences—literacy skills at level 2 or above in PIAAC (OECD 2013). The average reader can fully comprehend a text with a reading grade level eight.
To analyze a paragraph sentence by sentence, first you have to be able analyze the sentence word by word.
First and foremost, you must know how to read to do what you're suggesting people do.
Teaching's a calling, my ass.
Many of your commenters have a strange conception of "non-fiction". I might be willing to give you Wittgenstein, after a struggle, and maybe even Aquinas. But Dickens? Pynchon? Did they just skim over that word?
As an echo to Jupiter -
Mastering Dimensional Modeling. A Comprehensive Guide from Fundamentals to Advanced Techniques. (Data Modeling.) by Michael Kirshteyn
Kinda supports my previous comment about fiction/non.
And yes, I still read that kind of stuff even after my career. It's habit. And, believe it or not, it helps with my fiction writing.
Raises hand digitally for the Althouse program : )
USA 99
President’s Day to Memorial Day, 99 days, 14 weeks and a day:
1. commit to a workout plan (preferably outdoors, even if it’s just walking)
2. commit to a healthy eating plan (preferably not a fad diet)
3. read every day (even if it’s only 10 or 15 minutes, fiction is fine, maybe even preferable) + listen to music every day (mix in some old and some new)
4. commit to being the best person you can be for your loved ones
5. commit to doing good work at your job or whatever else you do to make a living
You’ll emerge in the summer a better and happier version of yourself.
Basic training.
Consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind. I once read an advice article in runners world “I’ve run everyday for 3 years and I’m not getting any faster. What should I do?” The advice was “Take a week off.”
Steady motivation is important but the hardest part of 75 Hard is dealing with the boredom. No one cares if you skip a day. Even the folks in Instagram that you’re 75 Hard bragging to. They especially don’t care. Create healthy habits that you enjoy and can stick with.
Ann’s 75 Easy would be an improvement for probably 80% of the American population. Let’s start with that.
'I mean I would like to be able to approach a golf shot with nothing in my head but calmness and useful golf thoughts. Golf is another activity that rewards and encourages calm focus and exercise, and fellowship, though it is much maligned as a "sport."'
If you play enough and get to a certain level, you really shouldn't have many (if any) thoughts while swinging.
As for being a sport, playing good golf takes ridiculous hand/eye coordination and decent strength and flexibility.
It's not like running track, but it's not darts or billiards either...
Yancey Ward said...
"How do you get 10 pages of a nonfiction book as a grueling challenge?"
Jeeze, Louise- have you met your average American, Althouse?
Yes.
A friend of mine at the gym was going to do this with her adult son. I think it's a laudable goal for many, many people who don't exercise at all, don't read anything except InstaFaceTok, and drink who-knows-what-else, even if it's not alkyhol (say, "energy" drinks). There are a LOT of people who do none of this every day. As someone else mentioned, if nothing else, it might give some people the structure and discipline to develop some better habits. It's a gimmick, but sometimes a gimmick is needed to kickstart things.
I demurred said friend's offer to do it with them. I already do 3x that much exercise nearly every day, read a crap-ton of non-fiction, and you will pry my beer from my cold, dead hands.
The average person does not read a single page of non fiction in a year. A decade.
I love that Joyce, Faulkner, and Pynchon were among the top 5 hardest works of fiction on this list. Glad to know it wasn't just me. I would also have moved Anna Karenina up there and moved Moby Dick much further back on the list. But that's just because I couldn't keep all the characters straight in the book. Or that my dog would not leave me alone every time I sat down to read it.
Saigon. Shit. I'm still only in Saigon. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now, waiting for a mission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.
Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory.
I think the 75 days is another way of saying "one day at a time" while really intending to do it for the rest of your life. It's not like you'll stop after you get to 75, and every time you bump back to Day 1... what difference does it make? You're going to do this permanently. There's sort of the idea of hitting the goal, but it's just the minor achievement of having a streak with no days where you missed.
Maybe you see achieving 75 as a reward in itself, but I don't see why it matters much. What you really want are some good habits and a way to motivate yourself.
"How do you get 10 pages of a nonfiction book as a grueling challenge?" Don't forget that the NYT specializes in political fiction. Actual facts tend to harsh their mellow.
As for the workouts, if they're at an appropriate difficulty for the user, it's not a problem.
I would substitute some electrolyte beverage for some of that water. Remember, Brawndo has what plants crave.
>Jupiter said...
Many of your commenters have a strange conception of "non-fiction"...But Dickens? Pynchon? Did they just skim over that word?<
No, they didn't - You apparently skimmed over Althouse's OP which had a link to "Goodreads list of the most difficult novels," which elicited our fiction comments.
Why 75 days? Youse you're noodle. Or Google a sciency peer review article what common sense should tell you.
Unrealistic expectations of the duration of the habit formation process can lead the patient to give up during the learning phase. Some patients may have heard that habits take 21 days to form. This myth appears to have originated from anecdotal evidence of patients who had received plastic surgery treatment and typically adjusted psychologically to their new appearance within 21 days.22 More relevant research found that automaticity plateaued on average around 66 days after the first daily performance,9 although there was considerable variation across participants and behaviours. Therefore, it may be helpful to tell patients to expect habit formation (based on daily repetition) to take around 10 weeks. Our experience is that people are reassured to learn that doing the behaviour gets progressively easier; so they only have to maintain their motivation until the habit forms. Working effortfully on a new behaviour for 2–3 months may be an attractive offer if it has a chance of making the behaviour become ‘second nature’.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3505409/#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20it%20may%20be%20helpful,to%20take%20around%2010%20weeks.
here's a FUN non-fiction question to ponder..
What percentage of American Natural Born Citizens could pass the US Citizenship Civics test?
(i actually just took a practice version, and it was actually pretty hard (only got 94%))
I doubt that most American NBC could get half right.. I Don't Even Know what is a passing grade..
To recap, Americans a fat stupid and lazy
Here are my recommendations, based on what I do and could do more systematically:
1. Stop eating for the day at 3 pm.
2. Lie down to go to sleep at least 7 hours before wake up time, which must be early enough to get out for the sunrise.
3. Have a sunrise vantage point and run or walk 1 to 2 miles to get to it and back (it's okay to drive to the point where your begin the run/walk).
4. Read and write following your own interests for at least 2 hours a day.
5. Take a second walk/run or other exercise.
6. No sweets, no junk food, no alcohol, no fruit juice.
I am sitting in the Cabo airport waiting to return to Madison. I have been on a week long Pilates retreat north of Cabo on the Pacific. We were on the beach at 7:30 doing a 45 minute stretch class - we then walk up to the sun studio for 1 hr of Pilates - then breakfast at 9:30. A small lunch is provided at 1:30. At 4:00 we head back to the studio for 1 1/4 hr of Pilates and then head to the beach for another 45 min stretch and then enjoy the sunset. We then have dinner at 6:30. The food is wonderful - fish 3 times - no beef or chicken. Fresh vegies and fruit. I probably didn’t drink a gallon of water a day - but we were in the desert so I certainly drank a lot. I could do it longer - but would miss my family. I ran 2-3 miles 3 times this week and on the other days walked the beach for 2-3 miles. People need to exercise more and eat less. Pretty simple really - nothing about that sounded extreme.
Wow, that sounds grueling. Let's see, I run for about 13.5 hours per week, so that's covered. I don't drink any alcohol or eat sweets. And I usually read (non-fiction) for a couple of hours per day. I suppose I drink less than 1 gallon of water per day, because even living in the desert I just don't need that much. This is dumb.
'6. No sweets, no junk food, no alcohol, no fruit juice.'
Weed?
>Ann Althouse said...
Here are my recommendations, based on what I do<
Good for you (honest).
You lost me at #1. Well, and definitely at #6. And, let's see...yeah, every one of them in between.
@Linda 12:22pm
Sounds great!
I have a friend with a house down that way...now is the time I should be visiting...
Ann Althouse:
Here are my recommendations, based on what I do and could do more systematically:
We're on opposite ends of the spectrum apparently. My schedule is more like a hamster. :)
I suggest combining Tim in Vermont’s French study with the 75 hard by drinking a French 75 instead of a gallon of water.
Michael said...
The average person does not read a single page of non fiction in a year. A decade.
Does reading Althouse and the comments count?
Mind, body, spirit.
Its a three legged stool. Developing a spiritual center will keep your life and goals in balance.
“ Weed?”
Obviously, don’t take any drugs. You don’t need a role for that. I didn’t bother to say don’t smoke. Don’t commit murder. Brush your teeth….
There is the 7 habits of highly effective people.
First its the habit. The discipline of the habit. Discipline.
The "75" is to set the habits
Pick your habits. Quality habits.
I posted above. Mind, body, Spirit.
The Althouse House must be Watching their Badgers battling the Hawkeys.
May the best team win.
The last 2 years watching the Lady Hawks play roundball, has been more fun. Have to wait for Thursday for the ladies to be back on the court. If you have not watched them play, it is a BUNCH of fun.
Floss
'Obviously, don’t take any drugs.'
Not sure it's obvious.
'California sober' is all the rage these days : )
“Let's hear your version of 75 Hard.”
Army Basic and Infantry Training, Ft. Polk, LA, 1975, followed by Jump School, Ft. Benning, GA.
That taught me mental toughness at age 18. 75 Hard sounds like a made up “tough time” for someone who has never experienced truly tough times. And to think suckers are paying for this drivel.
Having gotten up everyday at 5:00 for the 50 or so years I like to sleep in to say 6:30 or 7:30. Then coffee. Then the day starts.
I like to walk 2.5 to 3 miles a day. Sometimes not all at once.
#6 is doable.
I don't even do Dry January, so there's no way on Earth I'd do 75 days without alcohol. Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.
I used to take a sleeper car from Tampa or Atlanta to DC and back again, a few times a year. Not on my dime - actually mostly on the taxpayer's dime. Ordered meals in the car. The first few times I re-read Middlemarch. Then I started bringing books about Middlemarch.
The secret is to have only one book and one book about the first book. There are only so many times you can read the AMTRAK escape rules, and there was no internet. Once we hit a cow in Ocala and were 20 hours late. I think this guy called Biden handled AMTRAK back then. A steak dinner cost nothing. Cost me nothing.
Supposedly, someone in the 19th century said "eating an apple only works, if you're eating the apple in the saddle watching the sunrise" - could been mangling this.
I think getting up to see the sunrise is the hardest thing of Althouse program for good health. I doubt I will ever achieve that. Too many cold Mornings, where its more fun to lie in a warm bed and hit the snooze button.
Running/walking twice a day seems doable.
Good for you Professor. I get the impression that many of the people on this blog are obese and/or heavy drinkers of alcohol. It's hard to lose weight and be healthy. I know from personal experience. You are setting a good example with your early morning sunrise walk/runs. Keep it up. There is a former train/hiking trail close to me, and I try to go hiking there every day with my Lassie Collie. Thanks for the inspiration.
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
“ Weed?”
Obviously, don’t take any drugs. You don’t need a role for that. I didn’t bother to say don’t smoke. Don’t commit murder. Brush your teeth….
Yeah but what about flossing?
"French study with the 75 hard by drinking a French 75 instead of a gallon of water."
"Yes back in the days when I was a General in the great war a French 75 artillery piece sent a lot of Boche to hell, and I was hard drinking. Beau was just telling me the other day..." Joe Beiden's comment on the topic.
For your 10 pages, I would suggest reading Greg Mankiw's "Principles of Economics." Americans don't know enough about economics because it is often the secret high school class that only the elect take, like latin. But you won't be able to stop after 10 pages.
I start eating when Althouse stops. I stop ar 8 pm. Read daily. Hard and easy fiction and non fiction. Plowing through all six volumes of Gibbon’s Decline. Exercise an hour a day.
"Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life"
That just about covers it then, right?
I'm on my way out the door right now. I've got ten miles to run before work. Sunday is a very busy day for me.
Michael:
I start eating when Althouse stops. I stop ar 8 pm. Read daily. Hard and easy fiction and non fiction. Plowing through all six volumes of Gibbon’s Decline. Exercise an hour a day.
You plow through all six volumes of Gibbon's Decline every day. Shit, I'm impressed.
I did the program. Ended up going about 93 days before I decided to break it for a wedding reception. Came back and then did 21 more days.
Not really any different than a lot of people doing dry January.
I walked my dog 4 miles, twice a day. Once of those walks was carrying a weighted backpack, aka rucking.
All from mid July though October.
My wife hated it. She felt it took away from her.
I learned a lot about myself. I also had incredibly productive times at my job. Turns out all that walking gave me a lot of time to think about projects and problems.
Also lost 30 lbs.
Can newspapers, blogs, magazines stop referring to “ experts”? I see that word and I know BS will follow.
Going for my walk now 2:35 PM. My wife is getting ready to go with me. We may get out before dark.
I was amazed that my students enjoyed parts of the Summa Theologica. I thought it would be too challenging. This was at a community college where most students weren't proficient in math or reading. But they had extraordinary discussions about Aquinas. 'Why is despair such a serious sin' turns out to be a good question to ask 18-year-olds.
So maybe add faith as a daily routine, or discipline?
Another reference to a 10 page threshold, and reading stamina
https://www.joannejacobs.com/post/why-joe-college-can-t-read
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