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By December of 2014 , my wife told me she wanted a divorce and the depression worsened . In August of 2015 , I was living on my own in an apartment . My weight began to get out of hand and I started dealing with sleep apnea , bad knees , and a sore back . All these things didn ’ t stop me from gaining weight . My weight had gotten to 273 pounds . Everything about my lifestyle was unhealthy . In October of 2016 , I was sitting on the floor with my son Landon on my lap . When he stuck his finger down my belly button , and of course it disappeared . He looked up at me and said “ Dad , I don ’ t want you to die ”. That immediately broke my heart and brought me to tears . I thought to myself , “ What the hell am I doing ?” At that moment , I decided that the pity party was over . I was going to fix my life . I went and got counselling to deal with my emotions and feelings . I instantly cleared my apartment out of every piece of garbage food and replaced it with healthy food . I joined a gym and began doing physiotherapy for my ankle . I was 100 percent committed to this lifestyle change . By January 2017 , I had dropped 80 pounds . I was in a really good place emotionally . My sleep apnea was gone along with my knee and back pain being cured . At this time , I met the love of my life and our relationship began to grow . By March , I had dropped another 25 pounds . I got all the way down to 168 pounds . Finally , I was in a fantastic place mentally , emotionally , and physically . My kids were happy to see me so happy . I continued to train to keep the weight off for the next couple of years . But something was lurking in the background . In January of 2019 , I was having some issue physically which I didn ’ t think much about . One night , I woke up feeling like I was having a heart attack . I woke Margie up and had her take me to the hospital . After some tests , the doctor said that I had an arrhythmia along with palpitations . He referred me to a heart specialist . After many tests , they said I had an enlarged artery and the beginning of heart disease . I was placed on medication , and told not to train and exercise until the artery had shrunk in size . Receiving this news was hard , but I was much stronger mentally than before and did not fall into a dark depression again ; I stayed optimistic . With treatment and medication , my artery had shrunk considerably by October . The doctor gave me the ok to return to training and exercise . He did say not to overdo it . In November , I returned to training and exercise .
Juan : Sean you have overcome such massive challenges . How do you go from that to being inspired to do your first bodybuilding competition ?
Sean : What truly inspired me to pursue and compete in bodybuilding was my Margie who is the driving force behind everything I have accomplished . I also drew inspiration from Brandon Harding and Regan Grimes . Brandon Harding inspired me by his message of “ don ’ t let other people live your dreams .” If you believe in your dream , go after it . His honesty and integrity along with seeing what this young man was building just rang deep with me . Regan Grimes message was almost the same . Their work ethic , look and dedication to their craft were very inspiring to me . One day , Margie noticed I was watching these two a lot on YouTube . She always