Ascension to my Better Self

My name is Luke Aubin. I’m 27 years old, a father of one, I have a fiancée named Holly, and I love my body. In fact, I love my body so much that I decided to make it the best I possibly can and compete as a natural bodybuilder in May!

However, this wasn’t always my story. In my early twenties, I was overweight, unhealthy, and living a life of excess. I treated my body like a garbage dump pouring in excessive amounts of processed foods and alcohol until finally, it gave out.

One morning, after a night of drinking and eating, I jumped out of bed, and fell to the ground. My right side was numb from head to toe. Luckily, my parents were home and heard the thud, and came up to check on me. After a trip to the emergency room, it was believed I had suffered a stroke. The air ambulance was called, and I was rushed to University Hospital in London. Luckily, I regained feeling in my right side during the helicopter ride. But it took a week in the hospital for me to regain mobility and normal function.

After my week in London, I slipped into depression, and ballooned to 230lbs. And at 5’8″, I wasn’t exactly the picture of health. I didn’t change my life right away, as one would expect. I wasted years of my “second chance” feeling sorry for myself and not caring. I thought it was normal to be this heavy and that I would be stuck at that weight. I thought what I was “meant” to be fat. Some people just are, I told myself.

Only until recently, when I found out that I was going to be a father, did I decide a change was necessary. I knew that I had to be around for a long time – for my family. And I wanted to make sure that I set a good example for my son!

So I began the mission of losing weight. It was a slow process in the beginning, just walking and eliminating fast foods. Slowly, the weight began to come off. Then, it stopped at 195. I began to think the same way again. Maybe I’m not meant to be less than 195? Maybe I’m just meant to stay chubby? And then Twitter entered the picture.

What began as a few compliments from amazing athletes turned into some great relationships and got me set on my journey towards being a fitness competitor. Especially my relationship with JC Astorina, an NGA pro bodybuilder out of Illinois, who helped me achieve a level of fitness I had only ever dreamed about!

I never even dreamed of myself having abs, so that’s not even accurate really! As of now, I am around 170lbs and, if I do say so myself, absolutely ripped! Most of the results I’ve seen have been due to my diet, and the rest is hard work in the gym. High intensity interval cardio has played a huge role in fat loss and speeding up my metabolism, as has weight training with very little rest periods and high intensity!

I’ve made it my mission in life to set a good example, not just for my son, but my entire family, as well as complete strangers! If I can do this, anyone can! You can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it and work hard enough. Anything is possible, and that’s what I want to show people! I’ve been there, I know what it’s like to feel like you’re stuck at a certain weight and you can’t change it. I’m telling everyone that you CAN change it.

I’m not saying everyone has to go to the extremes I did, but you could if you wanted to. I set the bar high for myself because, to be honest, I didn’t think it was achievable. With help and support from too many people to mention, including Quest, I will achieve my goal. And on May 18th, I’ll return to London for the first time since my stay at University Hospital, and I will step on stage to compete as a natural bodybuilder. Hope I get to meet some of you there!