"I ruined my health, but even that didn't stop me" Erik Ochman lost 30kg!

The period after the birth of a child is the most beautiful time for some people, for me it was a time when I hit my bottom, but I should probably start the story from the beginning...

My name is Erik Ochman and I come from a hockey family. From a very young age I was driven to sports, discipline and regimen. I owe this to my parents who sacrificed a lot of their time and money to allow me to play and pursue my dream, like a lot of young guys who saw themselves in the NHL and wanted to lift the "Stanley Cup" above their heads. However, at the age of 15, that young boy's dream was dashed as I suffered a serious knee injury and then, although there were efforts to come back, I stopped playing hockey at the top level.

And it was at this point that I started to exercise, to focus on nutrition and the functioning of the human body, especially mine. Every day I would look at "pro" bodybuilding magazines or watch Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone movies over and over again. But the question that kept running through my mind was, what is the key to success? Is there a shortcut I don't know about? Is there something that will make my path to my goal easier?

I was only able to answer these questions after a few years, when I realized what it was really all about. It's not like any other sport, and although I had the discipline and tough regime of an extra-league club, I couldn't imagine what was behind it all. It's not just about training hard, but this lifestyle is a daily, lifelong work and how you treat your body is how your body gives back in return. Unfortunately, I too have made mistakes and quite fatal ones, due to my inexperience and recklessness with my body at my young age.

My dream was to get into the Army, because I enjoy military technology, weapons and general events in this direction, physically I was ready, I passed the psychological tests, but the only thing I had during the initial medical examination were elevated liver tests. The doctors thought it might be hepatitis, but I didn't have it. I was so overdoing it with exercise that I was destroying myself and didn't even know it. I was found to have a genetically weak liver from my father and extreme exercise didn't add much to that until I blew it off. This is where regular doctor visits and check-ups started. With each visit they got worse and worse, and eventually word of a transplant came up. When I first heard this I started laughing and didn't know if it was a joke or a harsh reality.

My health deteriorated week by week month by month rapidly for the worse. I was sick after any meal, whatever I did, I would fall asleep from exhaustion immediately afterwards. I even got tired of doing the dishes, I usually couldn't even physically do that. Of course I started gaining weight, I couldn't do sports. All the time I had devoted since I was a kid to sports and then exercise all melted away. I closed myself at home from the whole world and didn't know what to do next. I had no motivation or vision of better days. No one knew how to help me, in fact I didn't even know myself. My family was always behind me and it was tearing my heart apart. Because I saw myself as a man without a job, as a father who didn't even have the strength to see his own daughter grow up because I slept for three quarters of the day. So I saw myself as a worthless man who was just tormenting everyone around him.

To make matters worse, I put all my trust in the doctors and the health care system who said I would never play sports again and it would take at least 5 years before I could get to any functioning level of a "normal person". I was facing stomach surgery, my kidneys were damaged and my liver tests were getting worse and worse. I was drowning in it and didn't know where to start, how to bounce back and day after day I asked myself "How can this happen to me, an athlete at 22?

It's a tough situation when your family is trying to help you, but you don't know which way to go and all you have left are those black thoughts that I was bottling up and feeling ashamed of myself. It was very hard to hold back the tears and search for answers to my almost 3 year old daughter's questions of why I don't go to the playground with her and why I go back to sleep and when I will play with her.

However, everything broke down the day I found a job in a private company with the help of my wife. Yes, it seems like a trivial thing to many people, but for me it was a sliver of hope for a fresh start and a better life for my family, who had fought enough for me. After some time, my liver recovered and I started to rebuild everything. The ideal would be to start slow and easy, but I'm the kind of person that goes from extreme to extreme. I started exercising with my brother-in-law in the garden, it was summer and perfect conditions to exercise again. Over time, however, I realized that I needed to take a more conscientious approach to my health. I started from day to day, adjusting my diet, keeping a strict calorie deficit diet and adjusting my workouts to that as well.

After a while, we started going to the fitness center. It was really hard, both physically and mentally. Of course there was another problem, after about two months of exercising I was taken away by ambulance at night, another knockdown. I wanted to come back so badly, until I was going through illnesses and going to exercise with, for example, a fever of 39° and beating the fatigue with a big dose of kicker, until I got an inflammation on my heart, when I couldn't breathe at all. The doctors' recommendations were hospitalization and at least six months without any physical exertion. Then there were visits to cardiologists and scans plus several EKGs, but in the end the heart was fine. The only thing that was on my mind the whole time in the ER and in the hospital bed was that I never wanted to get back down. I just can't let that happen anymore for the sake of my daughter, wife and family.

The whole time I was feeling unwell and getting fat, I kept telling my family and friends that if I put my mind to it, I could get fit again. I think almost no one believed me and they looked at me as a person who was just making promises or out of his mind. Just this idea of showing everyone how strong-willed I am has driven me forward. It wasn't just that, of course, but I also wanted my daughter to remember her dad as an active athlete and not just a person who sucked. I want my daughter to be proud of what I have accomplished and will accomplish. So that one day she can say that her dad is a role model for her. Since I didn't start exercising for the first time and I already knew what to do and when to do it and also in a way I was relying on some muscle memory and being able to know my body after all the falls, what I could do.

My starting weight at the beginning was 115kg. In three months I reduced the weight to 88kg.

I have my workouts scheduled for 6 days a week, plus I bike every day before work as regular cardio. At first I didn't like the early rising, but now I can't imagine my day without it. I go to the gym after work and spend time with my family after a workout well done. As part of my recovery, my wife and I go to the sauna once a week, at least this time we have some time to ourselves and massage, physiotherapy. All this is underlined by a proper diet, which my wife prepares for me. Day after day she stands by my side and even if I am sometimes on the verge of strength, it is she who "supports" me, gives me a helping hand and helps me to get back up in the saddle so that I do not give up continuing to give towards my goal. Plain and simple she takes care of me like a "pro" and I couldn't do it without her. She is a great role model, support and together with my daughter a motivation to keep going, to work harder, both in sport and in my personal life.

I don't stop and I don't give up, my dream is to participate in amateur competitions next year, so I firmly hope and go for my dream. And that is what I would like to tell you. Don't give up even when fate throws sticks under your feet, because the only one who can thwart your path is you and you are also the ones who can influence your sporting life and not only sporting life. So go for your dream and believe in yourself. Because we only live once and time passes uncompromisingly fast.

And as a philosopher once said long ago:

"A man has no right to be an amateur in the plane of physical training. It is his shame to grow old without recognizing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.