Think it’s too late to kick off a sporty journey or get active? Well, buckle up and explore the thrilling tales in our author bios – you’ll soon discover that the clock has no beef with your fitness ambitions! It’s never too late to join the fun, and our authors are living proof!
BORN TO MOVE AND EAT
Ever since I was little, I always loved to move and eat. My mom always said that I could never sit still and if I saw someone eating, I immediately wanted to eat as well. Later in life, during my teens that meant that I trained basketball every day, as that was my obsession. My dad and brother had both played so naturally I wanted to join the fun. Unfortunately, the eating habit also followed. I knew nothing about nutrition, so the food was not exactly what you call nutritious. This meant that I was always a little on the heavier side among my teammates. Being built as a sort of refrigerator (non-athletic figure) also did not help in that aspect. Although I was a good and very dedicated basketball player, my body was not up to future national team standards as most of my coaches told me. Not only was this message coming from my coaches, but also family, and social media. And you guessed it… this led to a dark chapter that still affects my daily life until this day.
SACRIFICE FOR “SUCCESS”
This chapter of my life started out bright as I acquired a basketball scholarship and could go to the USA to play basketball and study my bachelor’s in biology. One might say that this was the time where I also truly got to shine both on and off the court as my grades were perfect. Everything seemed perfect, though I also started to feel the pressure from all angles even more. The stakes were getting high, and it was clear (since that is what everybody had kept saying and was also now saying) I needed to lose weight to succeed in basketball. So, this is what I set out to do and as fast as possible. At first things were going great as both speed and endurance improved. Though the problem was that my mind did not want to stop. I started to have less and less energy, my periods stopped, and I had trouble sleeping. At one point I had lost more than 20kg in only one year and when I came home for summer break my mom could not even recognize me. I looked like a ghost. This summer during the national team training camp I played terribly without any energy and things were only getting worse and worse as my mind was still not satisfied. It kept convincing me that I needed to be thinner even though it was obviously getting overboard and affecting not only my basketball dreams but also my general health.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND HARD WORK
The turning point did luckily come. My national team coaches sat me down one day and had an honest discussion with me. If I were to keep my spot on the national team, I needed to see a psychiatrist and get my eating disorder under control. For many this might not have been enough, but for me luckily, I was so driven by my basketball goal that I acknowledged that I had a problem and would follow their advice. Anything to not lose out on my dream basically. Was this the healthiest way of thinking… probably not haha… but it did work at the time. It was hard as hell. Imagine being told throughout your whole youth that you need to lose weight to achieve your dreams and suddenly after such hard work you finally do it, now you must do the total opposite. I was however very driven and did manage to get to an ok weight eventually, but my period did not come back until being on the birth control pills for several months and till this day my hormones are still very sensitive to any changes.
This was not my only struggle during this period of my life though. When I started my PhD in microbiology in Denmark, I played in the highest basketball league in Sweden. Talking about living your life on the road haha. Why? Because I wanted my PhD degree, yet I wanted to keep playing basketball at a very high level which they had in Sweden. So almost every day I was taking the train to another country to go to basketball training and back again. Looking back, I have no idea how I even survived this hell of a stressful period and got my PhD degree haha.
DISCOVERING CROSSFIT AND NEW GOALS
Enough with basketball though, lets dive into my passion for CrossFit and the unique powerhouse community that it offers. I was very skeptical in the beginning and only after one of my friends convinced me to join a free “testing CrossFit class” did I give CrossFit a chance. This was already in my 30ies but I can say it took me only a couple of minutes to realise I have been missing out on a bloody fantastic sport. I completely fell in love with CrossFit instantly and went straight over to the coach after class to say where I can I sign up to become a regular member? After a while I moved to Tallinn in Estonia due to acquiring work there at Tallinn University of Technology and of course I had to get an apartment that was as close as possible to a CrossFit box haha. This box happened to be CrossFit Kuubik and there is where my true CrossFit journey and goals began… This is also where I met my CrossFit family. As a foreigner who moved here by myself, I did not know what to expect, but honestly, I had no trouble integrating as Kuubik and the awesome people there became my home and family here. It is just such a great community and likeminded people you are surrounded by. How can that not motivate you to get better and really believe in your goals? So that is what I did, consistent training surrounded by supportive people and then also started competing in CrossFit. My end goal… I am a strong believer in longevity, so my end goal is to make it to the CrossFit games in the age category 65+ because yeah, I want to be healthy and strong even as I get older.
COACHING
It was at CrossFit Kuubik that I also started my coaching journey. They needed a “morning person” to take morning classes and I was the right woman for the job haha. I had coached basketball many years earlier in life and felt like coaching in CrossFit that I loved so much would be a great opportunity. So now I am the “morning coach” at CrossFit Kuubik and have a CFO-L1. This year I aim to acquire my CF-L2 certificate as I want to learn more and evolve as a CrossFit coach. It is such a pleasure to coach and help people on their own journey so I would not give this up for anything.