One minute I was a collegiate soccer player indulging in the finer offerings of a frat house, the next I was in an ambulance heading to the ER for the 3rd trip in a week.
The culmination of these unannounced visits laid the groundwork for a very painful road ahead, one filled with weight-gain, depression and an unlikely illness.
But what emerged from my darkest days was something much more positive.
As is usually the case in life, sometimes we need to have a breakdown in order to have a breakthrough.
This is the story of my breakdown and how it led me to my life’s work.
Firstly, this is not meant to be self-indulgent, as I greatly respect your time, so if you are reading through this, I want to extend my gratitude for your attention.
My dad, a former player himself, tried to get me into the game at a young age.
On a hot, muggy day in Houston, his attempts to get me involved failed. I cried.
Me no likie.
And as it turns out, I wasn’t half bad.
I always played in older age groups and our team, the Furious Falcons, were pretty good.
We won some local tournaments and received recognition. Pretty cool!
I tried dabbling in other sports (I also ran track, but hated it), but as time wet on it became apparent : all I wanted to do was play soccer.
Like all day!
And it paid off!
I was so ecstatic that my dreams were coming true that I stopped caring about the tournament altogether.
I was scouted to play college ball in the United States at Tufts University – a big test for an overseas player at the time.
It got so bad that I was determined to find my mojo by running track…did I mention I hate track?
My second season was much better. My coach sat me down at the end of my second season and said I had potential to be one of the best players in the conference if I just got my head right.
I was already heading down the wrong path.
I forsake my passion and failed to live up to my potential as a player, and this still haunts me to this day.
My immune system had turned against me.
After weeks of tests and in-patient care across 3 hospitals, I was finally given a diagnosis
Henoch Schonlein Purpura – an acute autoimmune disease that was wrecking havoc on my body.
Inflamed organs and extremities meant I was just shy of a zombie from all the pain meds.
It was in and out of the hospital for the next 2 months.
This was the sickest I had ever been in my life
But the worst part was the cure – steroids, and high doses of them.
We’re talking up to 80mg of prednisone per day, which is what cancer patients take.
My weight fluctuated from down 16 pounds to up 40 pounds in a matter of months.
The steroids caused a voracious appetite and for the first time in my life, I became overweight.
My insatiable hunger for sweets left me with a symptom called moon face!
I had completely lost control of my health and my life very quickly spiraled downwards.
Luckily, there would be a silver-lining from all of this.
Namely, in time, I made a full recover.
But equally important, it caused me to start questioning my lifestyle like:
1. Why was I drinking so much?
2. Why was I taking so many drugs?
3. Why was I forsaking this innate potential that I had as a soccer player in pursuit of meaningless hedonism?
I wouldn’t get the answers immediately, but at least I became aware of the problems.
After I managed to graduate (yes, on time!) I moved to NYC and followed a conventional career path landing a job at an ad agency.
Work. Party. Repeat
I was not necessarily happy or fulfilled, but I was getting better.
I still loved the game but I didn’t know what I could do with it besides play recreationally.
To keep my mind afloat during hard times, I started meditating regularly.
This became a pivotal moment in my life.
I became much more introspective and started doing deeper work to try and uncover a higher version of myself.
This included physical training as well.
Up until this point, I could never get a gym routine to stick.
I simply did not enjoy the monotony of lifting weights and seldom saw any value in it
So to build strength, I picked up kickboxing.
Specifically, I was doing HIIT Kickboxing classes where workouts combined rounds on the bag with bodyweight exercises.
I managed to find something engaging enough that I actually developed a respectable amount of strength and kickboxing proficiency.
However, by 8 months in, my enthusiasm started to fade.
And then on a fateful day during a particularly rigorous circuit, I had an idea that would change everything!
What if instead of kicking a bag, I could kick a ball and on one hand, improve my technical abilities and on the other, become stronger and more conditioned.
I noticed that engaging in an activity helped me to remain more consistent with my workouts.
Now, what if I engaged in an activity that I loved! What would the upside look like there?
In 2016, I moved to sunny Dubai to make this idea a reality.
Apart from acquiring personal training and technical certifications, I started to become an alchemist.
I would take ball mastery or dribbling drills and combine them with strength training exercises to create a unique type of workout.
The best part was I actually enjoyed the workouts so much that I began doing them daily.
And with the consistency came results.
The next step was seeing if other people would be willing to try something similar.
The beginning days were anything but smooth, but I was committed to learning.
Unfortunately, I had to close down my in-person bootcamp in 2020 because of Covid.
I transitioned my workouts online and started to distribute them to my customers.
But I noticed a lot of customers were not achieving the results they wanted.
Some had even given up entirely.
I knew if I couldn’t get my customers results, they would eventually give up on me or worse, give up on themselves.
So I enrolled in a mastermind to learn how to coach customers get the results they desired.
What I learned completely changed my perspective on fitness.
Simply put, the thesis was as follows:
We all have unconscious limits that hold us back from becoming what we want.
These limits are created by our life events (where we grew up, parenting styles, genetics, failures, successes, etc).
Until those limits are removed, we will be at the mercy of the internal struggle they place on us.
This is the reason why people so often fail to achieve goals, in this case, remaining consistent with a fitness regimen.
Ie, transformation is more of a mental pursuit than a physical one.
Beyond providing actual workout programs, I started to teach customers the methods I was taught in the mastermind to help them:
- lose fat
- build lean muscle mass
- improve their overall fitness
- improve their abilities on the ball
And substantially more so than before, my customers started seeing results:
This newly acquired knowledge completely changed how I coached customers.
Instead of just providing workout programs and meal plans, I actually started implementing systems to improve self mastery.
Nowadays, I have developed my philosophy even further by continuing to test new ideas.
As Fitball has evolved, so have I.
For instance, whereas I use to hate gym workouts, I now love them (identity shift!).
I also love doing yoga, calisthenics, and of course still love soccer more than ever.
As I get older, I realize how important it is to take care of your health.
Not just physical but mental.
So this is what it’s all about.
Challenging ourselves in pursuit of things that we enjoy so we can be fit, healthy and ultimately happy.
I’ll be over here in my lab alchemizing workouts, tutorials, guides, and learnings to share with you.
But in return, my main wish is that you join me for the ride, or as you will repeatedly hear me say
GET INVOLVED!