What I felt after I stopped using steroids

I stopped in 2023, at a little over 120 kilos.

That stop came with two other things, cutting calories and martial arts, so there is no way to separate them from what I am about to describe.

The first thing was feeling calm again, at peace with life. While I was using, the feeling of anger, of dissatisfaction, of being constantly ready to attack had become so normal that I no longer knew what living any other way was like.

Strength dropped by more than 50 per cent in most exercises.

I had more energy. Before, I would fall asleep as soon as I sat down. I went back to breathing normally, to sleeping normally.

The obsession with my physique dropped a lot, although that was already happening before I stopped.

In the first months, while I was still around competition people, I felt inferior for being smaller.

That is what happens when you put your worth in something you have or something you built. When that thing goes away, you feel you are worth less.

If I had not cut so many calories and added so much cardio, I probably would not have lost so much weight. But staying the same, that was never going to happen.

What I want to tell you is this: whatever you achieve with chemistry will disappear when you stop taking it. And most likely you will not want, or be able, to do this for the rest of your life. It is a very personal decision, one you should make with awareness and not on impulse, and I admit it is easier said than done. But it may spare you what happened to a young man who contacted me recently. That is for the next article.