I know that my Taekowndo coaches would probably tornado-kick me for saying this, but after almost five years of training 5x a week, I kinda felt like I had learned everything I needed to learn. At that point I had also fallen out of love with TDK a bit due to the heavy sportification of the art and the point-oriented sparring that was pushed into us. In other words, my relationship with TKD had ran its cycle. If I came back to martial arts, I wanted to learn something new.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that afterwards I fell into that whole shallow fitness train because I was subtly brainwashed by all those "Bikini Body Programs" that suddenly became super popular in social media; I honestly thought that I could get a six pack and look like a fitness model in 12 weeks by doing lots of HIIT and cardio...

Also I think I found the thought of finding and joining a new Martial Arts academy a bit intimidating, so I put it off and started making excuses ("I will join one once I get into shape"). But one day I just called myself out and took the plunge, and now my only regret is not having done it much earlier!