Road Back On Track

It is almost end of the year - well there is still Christmas before New Years, but because I am going to spend next 3 weeks (from Thursday) with my parents, I will take a break from blogging and be back the first week of January. ;) It is time to recall what happened in 2018. Sports My back problem basically destroyed all the sportive dreams I had for the year 2018. The dream, that I would throw at least 50m and compete in Finnish Championships was a totally realistic dream, as well as my dream to get a blue belt in Taekwon-Do. But because of my back issue, my dreams never came true. And it all put me down so much, that I started to live a very unhealthy life. More about that later. Since I was not able to do what I would have wanted to do, I decided to do something else. I tried new sports, I even went to cross-country skiing after not doing it for over 10 years. I did some running (yeah, really), and I also did some coaching in TKD - and maybe involved myself a little too mu...

Have you ever had the feeling that you want to give up? You have a huge dream, but you feel like you cannot get it, that always something goes wrong, and you are just done with trying again. Done with trying " one more time ". Have you ever been writing messages to your coach about how you just want to give up, that you are done? But never sending those, because there has been a little hope somewhere, and sending the message has felt too hard to send? Have you ever been crying in your bed and thinking you should give up, but at the same time thinking, that what if you give up now, and then regret later? I have had all of those thoughts in my head. And that is why I am writing this. So that if some other athlete, or anyone, is thinking, that giving up own dream would be the best decision, maybe they could think again. Think again, even though you would have thought it already so many times. Moments of giving up I was in a really bad place first in 2014-2015. The t...

Serious talk. About Addiction. Sugar Addiction. As apparently sugar addiction is a real thing, comparable to addiction to cocaine . Nice right? And still companies can advertise their sweets everywhere, so why cannot weed can be advertised? This is something I have actually thought to be weird, it is totally okay to get children (basically anyone) addicted to sugar, but weed is not okay. I know what you think. But also sugar has a lot of bad effects in long-term.  Anyways, hey guys, I have a sugar addiction . Yep me. An athlete, who does training 5-6 times a week. Who everyone thinks, that should be eating super healthy. Yeah of course I do. But I did not before. I still have so much to do to get my eating habits super healthy, I am still not there. But I am in so much better situation than where I was just a couple months ago. Where did my addiction actually started? Let's start over from my childhood. Because my opinion is, that it all has started already whe...

Most people know, that I used to be a competitive level athlete in the hammer throw. Even though I have never had super big goals like getting to Olympics etc, I have always had goals for Finnish Championships. And goals in other competitions, and you know, just goals in personal development. So why I made a decision to get a personal trainer, when in fact I could have just continued training on my own?  This is something I have heard people questioning, why getting a personal trainer when as a competitive level athlete in the hammer throw, there must be some knowledge also in the gym training. And for sure there is knowledge. But every athlete has a coach, so why would I start doing training alone at the time I am not able to focus on my main sport? At the times like this, I see having a trainer is even more important. So that at the time I can (and want) to get back to my own sport, I have not done any further damage etc. There has always been a coach So when thinki...

It has been a year since my last hospitalization because of my back. A year is a long time, and I have used that year for learning. Learning about myself, my way of doing things, and most importantly learning how to get back on training without making everything worse. Though the learning did not start right away, I had few months where I was just collecting my thoughts and my feelings, I needed that time to make myself see, that there are so many things I still can do. “When can I get back to hammer throw?” That was my first question when I met the hospital physiotherapist. And I think it tells something about what the most important thing for me at that time was. At the same time, I knew, deep down, that it would be a long time. But having a physiotherapist and a doctor who tells me, that it all gets better within 6 weeks, and I should be back in any time, did not make it easier. I knew it would not take only 6 weeks, and I made the decision to refuse to believe that. I made t...