In this episode, Mr. Bubba Downs shares his story of how he turned his life around and became a better man. He talks about his struggles with depression and anxiety and how he was able to turn it all around.
00:02:51.140You know, the obvious ones, the ones that everybody sees are the weight loss milestones.
00:02:58.920So, you know, I've already said I've lost the total now, depending on where I am on the scale today, somewhere between 130, 140 pounds, which has been huge.
00:03:10.580I feel, you know, I feel like a new man.
00:03:12.480You know, most importantly, aside from the number on the scale, the biggest health benefits been I've been able to get off all of my medications.
00:03:20.280I was at one point I was diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure and everything else essentially beat diabetes, which, you know, not a lot of people can say.
00:03:28.400I've dropped my sugars to controlled levels and I don't want to take meds.
00:03:33.300You know, so those are the obvious things that everybody sees because you can see a before and after picture on that.
00:03:38.120You know, what people don't see is the financial discipline that I had behind the scenes.
00:03:42.920You know, part of what was weighing on me and leading me to that stress and anxiety was some financial burdens.
00:03:49.840My wife and I had gotten ourselves into some pretty significant debt.
00:03:53.200And over the past three years, we paid off well over $100,000 in debt to the point now that we're, aside from my mortgage, we don't really have any debt to anyone.
00:04:09.360You know, you read so many good things and so many bad things about debt consolidation and what it can do for your credit and everything else.
00:04:16.940And, you know, finally, one day I got out of my own damn head and I said, you know what?
00:04:21.220I said, what I'm doing now is not working.
00:04:24.300I'm, you know, chasing every creditor now and trying to make the minimum payment is not working anymore.
00:04:31.860And I said, you know, I can either try to do this or, you know, in a year or in two years, I'm going to file for bankruptcy and then it's really going to hurt my credit.
00:04:40.900So I decided at that point to get a debt consolidation loan and, you know, compiled a whole bunch of stuff together, basically compiled it into one manageable payment and paid what I could.
00:05:03.680So what would you say are some of the biggest hurdles you've overcome?
00:05:07.380Probably the biggest one, honestly, is the sort of, you know, pseudo support you get from friends and family.
00:05:15.620Everybody says on the surface that they want to help you.
00:05:18.340Everybody says that they're there for you and that you can lean on them.
00:05:22.800But the moment the moment things get real and the moment that you really have to lean on somebody, all of a sudden, you know, they they flake out and you find out the old adage.
00:05:44.660And, you know, I was covered in shit for a long time.
00:05:47.040And, you know, I realize now that a lot of the people in my life who who I enjoyed being around when I was covered in shit were the very people who were covering me in shit to begin with.
00:05:57.140They were facilitating the bad habits.
00:05:59.300They were, you know, they were letting me, you know, they were letting me drink and eat myself to death.
00:06:05.140They were letting me take on additional debt when I couldn't afford it.
00:06:08.300And and I'm not blaming them because ultimately it was my choice.
00:06:11.960But but when you start climbing out of that and you start changing your habits, it becomes very clear to you who's actually shoveling the shit on you.
00:06:21.820And that's that's the situation I found myself in.
00:06:25.540And then the other hurdle is the flip side of that is not letting my mind convince me that I belong to be covered in shit because all these people are telling me, you know, I should be covered in shit.
00:06:38.280It's tough, you know, because you you go through a life.
00:06:41.200I mean, hell, I live I live 30 years on Earth.
00:06:44.040And for a significant portion of my adult life, I felt like I was, you know, like I was a loser, like I couldn't do any better.
00:06:53.340I continued to just be stuck in what I felt like was a dead end job.
00:06:57.560You tell yourself these stories and you say you convince yourself that you're only capable of so much.
00:07:04.720And then one day that all changes and you decide that you're capable of so much more.
00:07:10.880But every time you have an interaction with somebody from your past, some of one of those those shit shovelers, once you have an interaction with them,
00:07:17.860it's hard not to think back to, you know, to where you were and start questioning if you really should be covered in shit.
00:07:28.100There's the lack of confidence that, you know, even after three years now, I can tell you, I can look at before and after pictures of myself and not recognize the man in the before pictures.
00:07:37.200But when I walk into, you know, when I walk into a store to go and buy a new shirt or go buy new pants, I immediately grab the largest set, you know, pair of pants and the largest shirt on the rack because I still feel in my mind like I'm that size.
00:07:50.900Like I'm still that guy covered in shit who's, you know, almost 400 pounds.
00:07:54.780It's just your mind plays tricks on you.
00:07:57.220And if you're not conscious of that, you're not cautious of that, it can really put you into a downward spiral and you end up in the same place.
00:08:03.200And something I want to touch on right there, one of the things that I've learned as I've been going through this, because I feel you 100 percent on that whole self-doubt thing, man.
00:08:11.680Surrounding yourself with people who are not only just a little bit better than you, but who also uplift you to help you elevate yourself, man.
00:08:21.860That is that is one of the most powerful things you can do whenever you're climbing out of the shit.
00:08:28.300And there's that saying that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
00:08:32.380That's, you know, it's not a coincidence.
00:08:34.640I spend my time with pretty damn successful people now and not people who are just successful professionally or financially.
00:08:42.280You know, people who have successful marriages, people who, you know, people who have overcome debt, people who are physically healthy, you know, people who are smart and intelligent and growth centered.
00:08:55.040You know, so they're reading voraciously and they're listening to podcasts every time they get a chance.
00:08:59.260You hang around those people enough and you start, you know, their habits start to rub off on you and you develop habits of your own.
00:09:06.140And all of a sudden now you've got other people who, you know, maybe where you were a year ago who want to rub off on you a little bit and get some of what you're learning and some of what you're drinking.
00:09:17.180That's been the coolest part for me is starting to see some of that.
00:09:20.020You know, I'm having people reach out to me saying that they're inspired by by what I've done.
00:09:23.660And I'm just like, man, I've, you know, I've just been grinding for the last three years.
00:10:43.160What advice would you give these guys that are just now starting their journey?
00:10:47.380It's it almost sounds cliche, but don't give up when it gets hard because it's going to be hard and it's it's going to be hard.
00:10:56.240It's going to be hard, particularly early on.
00:10:58.140You know, the first for me, when I finally decided that I was going to do something, it was right around my 30th birthday, which is in September.
00:11:05.840And I was on and off of diets for probably six months before I before I really committed and I was really all in because it got hard.
00:11:14.180And, you know, you do it for a month at a time and, you know, or straight for a month and then you fall off of it.
00:11:19.260And, you know, then you do it again for another month and you fall off it and you have a New Year's resolution and everything's good till the middle of February.
00:11:25.720And that's I think that's human nature.
00:11:30.140But I think if if I could tell you anything, it's just be resilient.
00:11:34.740You know, you're tougher than you give yourself credit for.
00:11:37.420You know, you don't have to curl up and die every time the first thing goes wrong.
00:11:54.640Finally, man, if you could challenge these guys to do one thing this week, what would it be?
00:12:01.080I would challenge them to find one little thing in their life that's within their control, whatever, whatever that thing in their life is that they're trying to get under control, whether it's their health or their finances or whatever.
00:12:14.060Find that one little thing that can give them a victory and that they can do consistently over the long term.
00:12:19.020You know, going building off of what you just said, you know, one of my favorite quotes is little things done consistently over the long term yield big results.
00:12:27.580You know, my first step and this is what, you know, I tell everyone is my first step wasn't wiping out, you know, a terrible diet and quitting drinking and stopping doing everything all at once to try to turn myself around.
00:12:39.300My first step was literally switching from regular soda to diet soda.
00:12:43.860And it was a simple step, but it was a win that I could get for a couple of months and build a habit and get some momentum and some confidence to then build off of that and say, you know, I'm only going to have, you know, two diet cokes a day.
00:12:54.760And then I'm going to cut them out completely.
00:12:57.620And then, you know, I go from that to, you know, now I count my macros and I measure my food like I'm a goddamn bodybuilder because I've learned and I've refined and I've built off of all of those little habits.
00:13:09.960So find that first little small win and just attack it.
00:13:35.540They rely so much on, on their why they, they rely so much on this sort of internal drive to get things going.
00:13:43.540When in actuality, truly successful people and truly people who are able to, you know, truly transform themselves in one way or another, they're relying on habits.
00:14:20.440If you've been inspired by this conversation, we encourage you to learn more about the steps, tools, strategy, and resources these men are using inside of our exclusive brotherhood, The Iron Council.
00:14:30.140The Iron Council is a band of brothers dedicated to leveling up their lives and committed to helping you do the same.
00:14:35.440You can learn more at orderofman.com slash inthetrenches.
00:14:38.500Until next week, take action and become the man you are meant to be.