Eero and Samuli share their untold sinful past and how they overcame many addictions. A lot of people can be addicted and don't even know it!

The Untold History of the Vahva Bros

We've talked a lot about our transformations regarding training since starting Vahva Fitness, but something we've discussed less is how it all started.

We were not always like this, rather we went through significant breakthroughs and major transformations that completely realigned our values and our worldview.

Looking back to our 20-year-old selves, the difference is like a night and day. 

Literally from darkness to light.

We believe in the value of sharing personal wisdom and providing guidance to those seeking positive change in their lives.

We have been there and know that it isn’t easy (in fact it's the hardest thing), but because we’ve been there we have lots of knowledge and understanding from that place.

You will learn about:

With that said, let’s go back to the beginning of the wild times.

The Experimentation Phase

We met in university, and in those days we were living quite a different lifestyle compared to today. It was a time of partying, drinking, and experimenting with various substances such as psychedelics.

Before we were 18 years old, neither of us drank, smoked, or took any drugs. But after we started our university life we started with alcohol and partying in the nightclubs, and would regularly have big nights out.

In China, things especially get beyond crazy for Samuli. There were times when Samuli was going out two weeks in a row drinking excessive amounts of alcohol every night.

Although we generally lived a healthy fitness lifestyle with protein shakes, salads and lots of training, we used to have these massive binges and nights out every now and then.

It was a pivotal moment in Malaysia, 2017, that led us to reevaluate our lifestyle choices. Something major happened and Samuli had a realization where he found himself thinking “what the hell am I doing?”

When you get drunk you don't have actual control over your life or yourself. It’s similar when you first drink coffee, and you get jittery. But with alcohol you drink a bit, you drink some more and then you lose control.

This realisation wasn’t all about alcohol, it involved caffeine, pornography and other substances such as nicotine too. They were all connected.

Pornography was actually the first thing we quit. The reason why we quit alcohol and caffeine soon after was that it was way harder – almost impossible – to have self-control if we were either drunk or heavily caffeinated.

Not long after this we both decided to quit all substances at once. Today, we live some of the most sober lifestyles that we know of and life has never been better. It feels like having the happiness of a child.

This was the beginning of our journey that totally reshaped our relationships with substances, food, and ourselves.

It wasn’t easy.

How We Broke Through Our Addictions

Quitting alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and pornography was one of the hardest things we've ever done.

We would consider pornography and caffeine the real addictions we were facing since they were the hardest to quit. When you have these addictions you often think you are in control and you don’t even realise you’re addicted.

You want to drink your coffee, you want to watch pornography, you want to drink alcohol.

When you are addicted, you often rationalize your actions afterward and cherry pick research that approves and supports everything that you are doing. Masturbation is healthy, right?

But when you finally decide to stop, it becomes clear that you didn’t have control because you find yourself relapsing. This is such a humbling experience. 

For the first time in your life you realize you are not in control. A lot of people have never experienced this which is why they think their ego equals reality. They live completely in the egoic state of mind.

Coffee is widely accepted as the drug of choice for western society, but it took us months to feel normal again after we quit coffee.

On decaf communities on Reddit or on different forums, hundreds of people are trying to quit drinking coffee and almost no one succeeds. It's that addicting. Chemically, caffeine is not very different from other stimulants such as cocaine.

It is so deeply built into your subconscious that sometimes we would find ourselves thinking “I can't wait, tomorrow morning I'm going to get that cup of coffee.”

The physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms were intense. We struggled for months to feel normal again. That morning cup of coffee was so important and we never even noticed it – in fact we couldn't even function without it.

If you cannot live without caffeine or function well without it, are you sure you don't have a problem? It's exactly the same for people who are addicted to opioids. 

It was a humbling experience to realize that we didn't have as much control over our desires as we thought.

But after we became aware of these addictions we knew what we had to do to get rid of them, and training played a huge role in this process.

Replacing Dark with Light – The Bad with Good

Training has been a huge part of why we've been able to survive and thrive.

You can clear your mind as you spend energy on it. Not only that but your blood is circulating, your lymphatic system flows better, and your brain works better.

It cleans you out from within.

But perhaps most importantly, it gives you something to do in the time that you would otherwise have been drinking alcohol or coffee, or being hungover, or watching pornography.

When you consume something regularly whether it's alcohol, nicotine, caffeine or even pornography, it creates physiological dependence.

The natural production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin or dopamine are being replaced with the artificial sources. Once you quit, it leaves a vacuum in your brain.

Working out, healthy eating, sunbathing, breathing exercises, ice baths, sauna and high intensity cardio can help tremendously here since they provide a similar boost in neurotransmitters but in a healthy and sustainable way.

Breaking that cycle is tough and nearly impossible without healthier alternatives. When you decide to quit, you realise just how much time you were investing in these things.

Finding alternatives and relentless perseverance were key in overcoming our addictions, and it finally started to feel as though we were living our own lives.

But we realised soon enough that it wasn’t just substances. We had to develop a better relationship with food too.

The Hidden Faces of Addiction

Dinner or Dependency?

When we lived in Croatia 2016 we started eating amazing meat platters and breads which encouraged us to eat more.

We had begun overeating and indulging in food.

There isn't any food item that you need to consume every single day. We realised that we would eat food because we thought it was good for us, but when it’s an everyday thing we started to notice it was overconsumption.

Through experimentation with various diets like carnivore, vegan, and fasting, we learned to listen to our bodies' needs and came away from needing to control everything.

When you start to go over the top with anything, you become less sensitive and you start to move into this hyper state, which is another challenge when facing addictions.

Hyper-Optimization: Improvement or Imprisonment?

With the modern biohacking and performance enhancing cultures, hyper-optimization has become almost the norm.

When you find out that green tea increases growth hormone, you decide to start drinking five cups of green tea a day, or maybe you fill your diet out with a hundred different supplements because you think they are good for you.

People think X is good so 10 times X should be even better.

In reality and in nature, things don't work that way. You can quickly push your body off the equilibrium and turn a good thing into a negative by over consumption.

This is such a common way in the Western mindset. With the Western way it's easy to get addicted and overload the body and mind with things it doesn't need.

In Qigong and Eastern mindset, everything is about balance and harmony. Things are only good when they are consumed in moderation with the right amounts. Everything affects everything.

Intuitive Vs. Intelligent Frameworks

When it comes to diet it’s not an all-or-nothing equation. It’s important to balance intuition and intelligence.

We have spoken a lot about intuitive eating and the massive benefits it brings, but it's not the perfect system.

While intuitive eating and listening to our bodies' needs have been crucial aspects of our transformation, it has limitations.

Intuition is extremely valuable but it can be influenced by things like past experiences, emotions, and external stimuli. Because of this it’s important to have intelligent boundaries.

You need to combine your intuition with your intelligence in order to make fully informed decisions.

Intuition tells us what your body needs but it's not always 100% accurate. You cannot always trust your feelings. You need intelligent boundaries that prevent you from over consumption, false cravings and other pitfalls of intuition.

A great example of this was Eero’s relationship with eating meat. He used to think that he needed to eat meat every day and now it seems ridiculous.

After experimenting with a vegan day here and there, and completely fasted periods, he saw how good his body felt and realised that eating meat every day was absolutely not necessary.

Remember: what you think about food and diet is often coming from marketing. Combining intuition with intelligent boundaries gives you your own intelligence to fight this and overcome subconscious influences.

In finding the balance between intuition and intelligence you develop a better understanding of your bodies' needs, and make choices that are good for your overall well-being.

But of course it isn’t limited to just diet and physical health. Intuition and intelligence needs to be applied to everything, especially technology which is becoming more challenging every day.

Finding Support From Each Other

One of the hardest parts of breaking through addiction is the loneliness or hopelessness you can feel.

You don’t have to go through this journey on your own. The importance of community and peer support cannot be overstated.

There are so many people who are sharing their experiences with addictions – one of the great things about technology and the internet – that can help you to find support.

When you hear stories and experiences from others, it can provide the inspiration and motivation you need. When you’re in it and alone in the darkness it can be challenging to see a way out.

Especially if addiction has been your life for years, it’s not easy to make a change at that point, but when someone motivates you or inspires you, it can spark the fire for change.

And it is absolutely possible to change. This is the backbone of why we built Vahva Fitness.

We’ve been there. And we’re committed to helping others prioritize their well-being and embrace healthier lifestyles, because the rewards are so worth it. You don't need to do everything we do, but at least give a try and see how you feel.

We are creating a space where people can find the support and resources they need to make positive changes in their lives with Vahva Fitness, and especially through our podcast.

We hope that by sharing our stories we can inspire others to take control of their lives and become the healthiest, fittest, most intelligent, and most emotionally rounded version of themselves they can.

Everyone has the power to transform their lives, and we are happy to be a part of that journey.

Stay Strong!

P.S. Leave a comment below telling your own story of addiction, and how you overcame it.