Episode 9 - From Morbidly Obese to Bodybuilder with Special Guest Bailey Hitt

Welcome back everyone to episode nine of the Leadership Ignition podcast brought to you by the Leadership Ignition team where faith, family, fitness, and finance unite to help you level up your life. I'm Shane Beckham.

And I'm Mike Huff. We're both owners and coaches with the Leadership Ignition team, and we love bringing you stories of transformation that light a fire underneath your own journey. Today we've got one for you.

So today's guest is living proof that no matter where your story is, it doesn't matter what, doesn't matter where you start, as long as you pull the trigger and get started. So Mike and I first met this guest back in the group that we've talked about a lot before called Battle Ready. Um, he's gone from being morbidly obese to stepping into the world of body building. So he's built muscle, he's rebuilt his health, and he's even had to face the hard choice of skin reduction surgery along the way.

Yeah, man. What we love about this guy, it's not just physical for him. It's also impacted all of his other F-bombs. He's going to share a little bit more about that with us and his family, faith and finances, and we're going to dig into the grit setbacks and victories with none other than our friend, Bailey Hitt.

Hey guys. Speaker 3 Welcome to the show, my man. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. I'm excited.

Well, listen, brother, we've been long-term friends and so we follow you on Instagram. I love when you tag us, you tag us on, I mean, it's PRs daily for you, which is fantastic. Right. So, uh, absolutely love that. And you know, we're, we're seeing you help others too. I know that you've got folks that you're, you're talking to about your journey. And I think a lot of our listeners here is really, are really going to be, uh, enthused to learn about, you know, how you did it, why you did it. And, you know, you had to believe in something when you began, right? So we're going to want to rewind the clock a little bit and we want to, want you to take us back to the before picture first.

So Bailey, let's talk a little bit about that. So when you said, you know, when we say the word morbidly obese, what did that look and feel like for you back then? You know, not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally, can you kind of paint that picture for us about where you were then versus, you know, where you Speaker 3 are now, absolutely. So back in the day, I think in my heaviest, I was 365 pounds. And the biggest aspect of it, you know, my knees would hurt. That was something that I was thinking about recently. Things I take for granted now, my knees don't constantly hurt. That was a constant issue. Going up a hill was an issue. There were always some aspect of physicality throughout the day that I was having issues with. Health wise, I was hypoglycemic from a very young age. I had probably pre-type 2 diabetes. I remember I was talking to a doctor and he said, after I lost the weight, he said, "Yeah, man, you're really lucky with genetics." I said, "No, no, I worked the weight off. I did it myself." He goes, "No, no, you were genetically gifted that you didn't get diabetes." That kind of blew me away. So there were a lot of issues. I had gout at a very young age, a lot of different things. So they all started to kind of slowly stack up throughout the years. But I would say the biggest aspect, and it sounds corny, is just the mentality. You know, if you don't think very highly of yourself, in my case, that was my situation, that will wear at you more and more mentally. So that would be the biggest change, would be the mentality of, "I can't get the weight off to, well, now I can do, not only can I do that, but I can do anything." So it's a huge mentality shift. 65 to where are you now, Bailey? - I'm right at, I think 227. I went down to 202 on the scale, I believe.

- Yeah, that's amazing. So now you're building back strength and size and trying to construct it your way, right? - Right, exactly. - Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. When that shift happened, you decided, look, man, I just don't wanna live this way anymore. I don't want my knees to hurt. I can't, I don't, I don't want diabetes. What were your first steps? Was it nutrition, exercise, mindset? Speaker 3 How'd, how'd you tackle it? The first step, funny enough, was I kept thinking, you know, like I need, I need a good role model for what I want to be. And I was watching, I just happened to find the show called the selection, the special operations experiment way back in the day.

And it was like, I've seen every episode. You bet. Speaker 3 Incredible. I probably watched that 30 times over. And when I watched it, I remember immediately thinking, these are the type of people that I want to be like, like the people that made it through the instructors, all those guys, they just had like grit and stamina to them and they could keep going. And when I watched the show, to me, that was just life. You know, you have obstacles, you have people saying you can't do something and then you can do it, or you can choose to believe that you can't do it. And that just, it just all seemed like life. So it seemed very natural the way that they constructed the show. And so I really wanted to be like those guys. I noticed they all had a level of fitness to them and that was something that I always wanted. And so from there, what I did was I learned that walking was something that I could just kind of basically do. And so I'd walk for about an hour a day at the rate that I can actually walk. And so slowly, but surely I got a little faster and the first a hundred pounds, all I did was just walk and listen to podcasts like consistently. And I really didn't know anything about nutrition and I tried to go sort of. Just bare bones with it. That I didn't know anything about whole foods, any of that. And I realized, well, if I'm going to cut my calories substantially, I should probably eat real food. And that was the total extent of what I knew about vitamins or any, anything. And so I just ate less and then I walked a lot. Once I got down to a hundred pounds lost, my metabolism was really shot because the one thing that didn't really count on, and I didn't know anything about muscle development or metabolism, I didn't have enough protein. So by the time I got a hundred pounds down, my frame was very, very thin. And so while I was healthier and I was substantially better, you know, in the long term, the metabolism was so bad that I realized, okay, we've got to do something here. So that's when I started getting into, well, that's when I got on Battle Ready, which funny enough, Ray Care had an email blast they would send out occasionally. I found him after that show because he was on this election. And then on the email, at the very bottom, it was an inspirational one, on the email, at the very bottom, it says, "If you're tired of being fat, click here." That's all it said. I clicked on it. It went to battle ready. It had this huge guy, it had Byron on there, the pictures. I kept thinking, "There's no way that I can do this." How would I ever become that guy? How would I ever become that guy? Then I booked a call and the rest is history. He definitely made me cry a few times in the gym, but it worked out. He's mean. He's mean. In a loving way. That's right.

So I wanted to ask you a question, you know, Bailey, I had the privilege of listening to some pretty quality speakers over the weekend and and Bedros happened to be one of them. And. Of course, for those aren't familiar, Brad Bedros Killian was the founder of the battle ready program to where we all three met. And one of the things he said resonated with me a lot. Well, there's several things, but, but something that kind of correlates back to you is he said, adversity is an advantage. And I think a lot about that from your journey is, you know, you were faced with a lot of different emotions, a lot of different feelings, and you had to kind of put yourself in that position to where, okay, I have this adversity facing me right now. And as you entered into that gauntlet, your first initial thoughts was what happens to a lot of us is the limiting beliefs, right? There's no way that I can do this. However, it takes that adversity, the situation that you were in to refine and reshape yourself into who you are now. And if you don't have that, oftentimes people that don't have those hardships or those journeys, it's very difficult to understand and appreciate what you went through to get to the other side. You know, you've walked through your own living version of hell through that fire to get to that other side where you are now, but to your point, it all starts with one, one vision, one thing you see one cue that happened to be on an email blast that brought you to where you are today. And it's that easy, right? It's nothing about it's easy. My point is it's, it's the, the visual. You already knew you wanted to make the change. You needed something to push you over the cliff. And in your situation, it was one sentence on a bottom of an email. So my question to you and to other people, how many times do we miss that opportunity by just not reading what's in front of us, right? Because you saw the challenge, you knew the adversity it would take and the climb of that mountain that you would get, but you chose to do it anyway. So how, you know, how did you, what was your first initial thought, I guess, is once you click on the link, you see this battle ready program, you see all these Jack and Yoke dudes on there, you know, the typical ads, you know, it is what it is. There's, there's no reason that, you know, they're trying to draw you in, but what, what was your initial thought? You said, okay, I've got this huge amount of weight to lose. I want to actually put on muscle and strength. How did you approach that? What was your initial thought with the, with the, uh, call to, to, to the program, to, to engage, I'm curious how, how your initial thought, how you thought this would go, Speaker 3 Oh, can I curse on this?

Absolutely. Speaker 3 More the more, I immediately thought these guys are going to be a bunch of assholes. There is no way. I mean, I saw Byron on there and I was like, first off, that's not his real name. because that's too cool. And secondly, this guy is gonna be terrible. And then I had that phone call and he was like incredibly nice and empathetic and like saying like, oh, congrats, I'm losing the weight and everything. And then I met Nate, exact same thing, super nice, encouraging guy. And so, yeah, I mean, the initial thought was, I want to be this aspect of these people, but I don't know who they are as people. And I don't want to be someone that's not me, if that makes sense. I don't want to get engulfed into what I thought the fitness industry was. And to a large degree, I mean,

- In many cases it can be if you find the wrong tribe, right? Speaker 3 - It can be, it can be. It was very stereotypical, but yeah, I mean, it worked out. To be honest with you, I got really spoiled pretty early on I met some really quality people and and learned a lot. But yeah that initial leap was Terrifying I was terrified They pushed me very hard, which is good. But the adversity of Losing the weight by myself initially I think helped springboard me because I knew that I could do that work in the dark without people saying it and Continue to do that and continue to just keep going So take that a step further

You know, you had already lost some weight and you you want now it's time to build muscle and strength So let's talk. Let's take that back a step. You know, what was your What's your approach when you said? Okay, I'm going to the gym now and I'm gonna be lifting lifting maybe not for the first time but maybe for the first time in a while You know talk us through about your initial beginning time Lifting versus where you're at now, you know, how was that progression? How has your strength changed your mindset? Nutrition, you know, was it new? You know, what what what change? What was the shift or the Speaker 3 Initial so we basically we worked on core and Just overall bodyweight exercises initially So it's still too big to do a lot of the compound movements that do now So a lot of step ups a lot of box jumps are attempting to do them a lot of jumping jacks push-ups Crunches then eventually moved dumbbells then kind of progressed, but there was a lot of adversity initially Because I had my first and only really big injury about two weeks after I started Where I was doing a step up and I felt something I didn't know it was a tear at the time, but I felt something and then by as everyone does it's fine I keep doing it keep doing it the next day wake up. There's you know, a little bit of subdermal bleeding it turns out I ripped a muscle in the lower back like to the left and so I was out for about three weeks or so Right when I started the program, so Could have easily called it quits there, but I'm too stubborn I'm too stubborn for that so the the overall Progression was body weight then slowly moving the dumbbells than more compound barbell movements and then now I'll do a mix of everything the nutrition took a lot longer and From talking to a lot of people. I think that's where a lot of people struggle the most is nutrition It's it's a rough one just in the day the day and age that we live in, you know You get pizza advertisements every three seconds on on the TV and whatnot But that took probably a year to get a decent nutrition plan sorted. And once I did, that's definitely when the gains started coming out a lot more.

You know, Bailey, that's the most important thing we could probably talk about for a minute in terms of people who are trying to make the transformation you made, which was one, start moving. That's what you did. You started walking, lost 100 pounds. You didn't know anything about macronutrients or total calorie, but maybe basic total calorie stuff as you mentioned. And you got to Whole Foods, which is awesome. Not the store, that'll take your paycheck. but the product of whole food. But it wasn't really, I think, is what I'm hearing you say, until you dialed up and got your nutrition properly organized around the macros, proteins, fats, and carbs, we don't have to get a lot more technical than that, right? Within a construct of total calories that the change happened for you. Same thing for me. And that's all it really took for me. I was already working out, but I didn't understand any of that stuff. And we've talked about this before, Shane, we've got doctors in our program who don't understand it. No one's ever been trained it. But once you understand that, you can help other people understand it. That, to me, I think that's where the magic happens. And it sounds like that was true for you. Is that right? Speaker 3 - Yeah, definitely. I would say, yeah. I would say the discipline of routine mixed with nutrition and getting a general sleep pattern down.

- Yeah, also great point. Sleep, critically important. Great point. Speaker 3 - 'Cause water was never really a problem for me. I drink a ridiculous amount of that anyways.

When you talk about, you know, your nutrition in general is, you know, what I've seen a lot of, I know Mike has too, is you have this vision of yourself and in your mind you think, okay, walking in, working out is going to get it done. Well, that's not the reality. It just simply is not. And unless you set that vision on the bigger goal and you look in that mirror, and I'm curious, I want to tie this back to you, you know, as you're standing in the mirror during transformation phases, how you see yourself in that mirror really goes a long way towards achieving your goals. Like if you don't see yourself as who you want to be, it can be a big thing of discouragement. You can get let down. You can say this is taking too long. Why am I wasting my time? Which is a lot of things. I hear that all the time. What am I even doing? I'm not doing this or that or the other. I'm like, what does your nutrition look like?

And Bailey, before you answer that, we got to make sure people know you're a self-deprecating guy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go check out Bailey's Instagram, Facebook. You know, you are hard on yourself, man. So I can't imagine somebody like you having to look in the mirror and be unhappy and not quitting, but having that stick to it. Speaker 3 Yeah, I am. Oh, man, I wish I could tell you that that completely turned off. I think a little bit of it can – I don't want to be like crazy arrogant, look in the mirror and go – and then just – there's a little bit of me that always wants to fine tune and keep going and I think that's just with guys, with goals, constantly want to chase things. But yeah, that's a strange one. That's a strange one. I don't – I'm very happy with who I am but I will say something for people that are losing weight and I try to really harp on this for the two guys that have helped so far. Take pictures as you go, like once a week, like even more than the scale because the scale, I mean, we all know how the scale can fluctuate so much, but the pictures being able to look back, because sometimes I get in my own head because this is my reality now and I think, man, I'm not where I want to be, right? Like I get that. And being able to look back and go, Oh, right, this is two years of progress. We're still moving forward. Having those little moments where you can kind of redirect your compass based on what you did previously, because it is easy if there's no proof from the past to just kind of forget it. Even if you lost 200 pounds, it's just easy to in our head to just go, okay, that was yesterday. Let' keep going. And that that's been, that been the biggest help for me. For sure. For sure.

You know, we ask our coaching clients to take pictures too. And we exact same story, right? The idea is, is that scale is not going to move as fast as you're going to see it in those pictures. And same thing for us, we need to be able to see what you're what you're doing, right? Because, you know, look, we give you a macro plan and a calorie plan and a workout plan, and you say you do it. But the pictures will be honest with us more than your than your recording will be about what you're doing. And some people are nervous about that. And so we tell them, look, it's we're not it's not to judge you. Our mission is not to judge you, it's to help you. And so we can't help can't see. And if you're doing it on your own, same thing. No one wants to stand in front of the guy. I didn't when I was 275 pounds, stand in front of the mirror and take a picture of my big fat butt. Didn't want to do that. But I'm so glad I did because then I got to see the progress over time. And then at the end, and there is no end to this journey as we've talked about, to look back, like you said, and say, "Oof, look what we did and we got more to do." Yeah, go back to my Instagram where I post my weight loss Speaker 3 I'm not smiling in any of those like no one no one enjoys it. No one enjoys it, but

No comparison is a thief of joy. However, you do need to make the comparison to who you are yesterday And if you're better than you if you're one even 1% better than the day before then you're making that game But you have to have that reminder even though you're reframing refocusing and redirecting You have to remember where you started and so many people don't do that which means they don't give themselves enough credit to celebrate the small wins along the way. So it's good to look back, you know, it's okay to look over your shoulder. Just don't do it all the time, you know, don't be afraid of what used to be back there, but celebrate where you were and where you are now. So I hope that you are able to do that on a higher level now because you've had an amazing journey so far. All right, so babe, let's talk a little bit about what happens after major weight loss, which is one of the things that, you know, maybe people may not think about now and as they get ready to make this journey, but it is something that happens. It's something that, you know, I was fortunate enough not to have to deal with, but I know you yourself have had to deal with a major issue of having loose skin and you've been very open about that. You've, you've, you know, photographed it, you showed us the progression. So can you walk us through how you came to make that decision? Was that always the plan? You know, if I, if I lose this amount of weight and this happens, that's the, that's the route I'm going to go. And maybe just kind of talk us through that and some of your experiences on that and what you would or wouldn't recommend for someone else to possibly do there. Speaker 3 Sure. Sure. So the skin problem was very surprising to me. So the initial thought was a go in and then maybe it would go down a little bit, but it wouldn't be substantial. And it ended up being pretty substantial for me. More importantly, it was causing me health complications. So I had like a, it not to be gross, had like an ingrown hair situation, had to get surgery because of that. And so I realized longterm, it was just going to be a problem. So most of it wasn't vanity. I think I'd lie if I told you it wasn't part of it, but a lot of it was more medical related. And the process, yeah, of not thinking I was going to need to do that. And then realizing that was an important step for me was pretty difficult. I had about a six month run up to the surgery. The entire time was just very difficult mentally, especially going into it because I just, I chose to go in blind. I didn't really look up a whole lot about it. I knew generally what we were going to do, but some of that stuff has to be decided on the operating table, which is a little terrifying. I'm a very, you know, ones and zeros. I like to have everything written down. I like to know all the stuff. So going into it, him, you know, the surgeon marking up everything and saying, okay, we're going to have to decide this and this on the table. And that just kind of went, what? Okay. And then just trusting that they can do their job well and they did and just letting it happen, but yeah, the, the run up to it was pretty difficult. I'd say the recovery was extremely difficult. I had built a high pain tolerance, so it wasn't really anything that was too terrible for me. Granted, when you have Byron telling you to do like 500 lunges in one day, you know, that'll, that'll bring your, your pain tolerance up. I never did it. I never did it. And they gave me a hard time for it. Uh, but it was a lot. So it was three and a half. Technically, I think on paper, it was like two surgeries, but I like to say it was three, three and a half, because it was abdominal and then all the way around, which is called like an abdominal plasticity or something. The middle one, I can't remember the official name. Most people will call it a tummy tuck, which I wish I could think of a manlier way to say that, but whatever it is. And then the second one, or the first one, the abdominal plasticity, also, they also worked on my chest, arms, and then brought in my abs and sewed of them together. And so all that together, all at the same time was a lot on the body. So that took about a month of me being just laying down. I was able after like three weeks to go into work. I was able to work from home just because I work on a laptop anyways. And so that wasn't really too much of a problem, but it was a lot. I'm actually kind of at the tail end of the recovery now and it was back in last August. So we just hit a year and that's about roughly what they said it was going to take. So there's, there's a lot there, you know, as far as steps for recovery, also the mental aspect of waking up and essentially a new body, because I'd never seen myself when I wasn't morbidly obese. So seeing that after and then looking and the only expectation I had was tight skin. And somehow in my head, subconsciously, I kept thinking like, Oh, I'm going to look like Michelangelo's the David, right? Whenever I come out and then I look in the mirror and I go, Oh, okay. And that's like a real thing. Like people after these surgeries, no one's fully satisfied with how they look after a surgery like this. There's books written on it. Subconsciously, there's always something there that you want more. And so I would say, if anyone's ever considering it, it can be a lot. And so I couldn't tell someone if they wanted to or not, if they should or not. But just do what's right for you. And especially if it's for health reasons, I always think that should be primary.

- You know, we tried to stay in contact with you through all of that and just check in on you, check in on your mental health and your physical being. And I mean, you were positive. You were remarkably positive for a guy who was in severe pain and trying to get through it. And then probably not. (laughs) - The drugs. - Right, you know, I will not advertise those drugs to our audience today, but maybe in a future episode. So then, (laughs) So, but the question I had for you about all of that is, is, you know, look, it could not have been perfect coming off the operating table. It takes time to get everything back in order after all of that. And we see you now. And I would say, you know, from my perspective, you're there, brother. You look great. And hopefully you're feeling the same way. How is getting to the other end of all of that impacting not only your physique, obviously, but also your confidence levels and daily life broadly? Is it helping you? I would say so. Speaker 3 I would say so. It definitely, it's something I have to look back at pretty often. Cause like we were talking about before, it's so easy to be planning for it and working in the present that I can forget that some of that stuff, you know, the strides that made along the way for it. But yeah, I would say it's definitely helped me from a health perspective. Oddly enough, it's helped me a lot mentally and physically. I think there was a lot of mental to go through just kind of accepting everything afterwards. But it's definitely helped confidence wise. It's helped with that. I feel, and this is something that I've never felt before. Like I would never have been able to wear a t-shirt and feel comfortable like ever. And so that was, that was to this day when I put on a t-shirt, I'm like, Oh, this is crazy. So it's definitely, it's helped quality of life like day to day has helped dramatically. And I'm not saying, you know, I'm like, I have the confidence of a Olympian, but it definitely, it's definitely improved a lot. That's great, man.

It's amazing to hear. So let's tie a little bit of this back to, um, the four F bomb framework that we like to, that we like to navigate in. and we'll touch on a few. What about now that you've gone through all this physical change, you've got a lot of self-confidence back, you've had the surgery, everything's clicking in the direction that we know that you wanted to go in. So what has this done for you, you know, regarding your family aspect? You know, how has the transformation that you've been through change the way that A, you show up for them or B, they show up for you? What is the dynamic that's changed by simply making this decision to better yourself? You know, has that impacted your family, you know, chemistry? Speaker 3 Definitely, definitely. There were, there was a large amount of support during the surgery and after, which was something that I never really thought about. So we all definitely grew closer after that. And we did before as well, but I would say I'm definitely closer to my family after that. It was, it was pretty amazing how much they cared and supported me through that whole process. Uh, we, we've been pretty close for a while. And so we all keep in touch regularly. And since we're all in the same town for a lot of us, at least it helps a lot. So we, we definitely all try to keep in touch together and stay connected.

It's great, man. In that small town, in case anyone's looking for Bailey is Tupelo, Mississippi. So hunt them down, see if we can help you. Uh, so what about your faith? Did this process impact your beliefs, gratitude, your general outlook on life? Speaker 3 Yeah, definitely. Definitely. The whole process of weight loss, I would say, strengthened my why. I'm very religious and I mean, none of this could have been done without God, like by far, by far. Not to say that I'm some perfect guy that has a perfect relationship with God. I'm not. But he got me through all the tough times and it sounds silly, but being hungry for four years will really get to you. So he was definitely my rock during that. So it's only strengthened. You know, I still have my own tests and trials now, but things are very strong in the faith department.

- You said something there I wanna tap into. Take me back before your weight loss journey even began. How many calories you think you ate a day? Speaker 3 - Yeah. I was trying to figure that out not that long ago. Here's a typical day in college. Okay, so I would drink about half a fifth a day or a fifth a day on the weekend. Actually, that's not true. Probably every other day worth would be like half a fifth. So that's substantial, whatever that would be. My meals, I would have two or three fast food meals that were substantial. So I would say at least 5,500, 6,000 calories.

Did you think you were eating that much food, that many calories? Speaker 3 I had no idea before I started tracking my food, yeah.

Yeah, so take me now. What's your current split? What's your current macro set? Speaker 3 I think it's, so I'm on a cut right now. It's 2,200 for the calories. I think we're roughly 40, 30, 30, like 40% protein, 30 and 30 on fat and carbs.

So what'd you say now that you have settled into the nutrition protocol and you've been in it for some time now versus back then versus now a lot cleaner eating, a lot better food decisions. Do you find yourself more satisfied longer with your food? Are you still hungry? How, how does that look for you? I'm curious how taking that mindset from where you were before. Sometimes I feel like people eat just to be eat because they're bored, but to now where it's much more of a refined process, because I know we all get hungry when we get into cuts and things like that, but how is your current energy level now that you've gone through this transformation, your hunger and your overall, uh, sad. So I can't think of the freaking word that I'm trying to say, but, you That's what I'm trying to say. Speaker 3 - Yeah, satiety-- - There you go. - Yeah. (laughing) Has been-- - Maniacal. (laughing) Speaker 4 - It's been pretty solid. Speaker 3 Like you're saying in a cut, I'm sort of always a bit hungry. But most of the time I'm a little hungry and that's actually been good. It's been nice to see that my body's actually using the food you know, and absorbing it, through all the energy processes. So I'm, I would say I'm full afterwards a lot longer. I still have that part in me, whatever it is, probably just from binge eating for so long where I could, I could keep going, you know, like I could definitely just keep going. And so sometimes I have to kind of calm myself down there, but overall energy levels, I mean, impossible to connect. I mean, that would be from like level one to level 500, you know, I can do a lot more for a lot longer. I can not that I would ever recommend this, but I could get three hours of sleep one day just due to life events and still be able to go. Back then, if I had less than seven or eight hours, I couldn't do anything. I mean, I

couldn't even operate. So yeah. So, you know, my point to all of that is you may be a little bit hungry and a cut, but the way that you're fueling your body now and the way that we can properly fuel ourselves, A, it's not that hard. It's really not once you understand it. And B, you said one to 500, that's a massive change. And people get lost in the weeds and think this is something challenging, daunting and difficult. Now, I'm not saying that it's easy. That's not where I'm headed here. However, once you break through and start to really understand the benefits and how that you, that you feel, man, it's like, it's like coming up out of the valley and you're already standing on top of the mountain. Like you have this, the sun's hitting you in the face and you're like, I feel freaking fantastic.

Well, and Shane, it ain't easy, but as we said a million times, it is simple. The hard part is getting away from your old habits, your old behaviors, your old thought processes, right? But the, the work to be done is simple. It's calories in calories out, maybe a little distribution control and it's movement. Right.

It's just like, it's like what he does for a living. Inputs equals the outputs, man. Speaker 4 And that's human life.

That's that's data entry. That's it. That's. Airports that's paving that's gyms. Doesn't matter what you're talking about. It's the same thing. Your inputs equal the outputs. And when you start putting in better, you know, I tell people on the floor, your body's like a Ferrari, man. You're going to put junk. You're going to put shit fuel in a Ferrari. No, you're going to put the best fuel that it can possibly take because it's a high performance machine. Well, why don't you treat your body the same way?

Well, and I love the analogy of, you know, think about your body, like the only car you're ever going to be able to own. What's it going to look like at 2 million miles? You better figure that out. What do you get when you're at 50,000?

Yeah. The check engine light, man, you can't just ignore it when you're a human being. That's right. Speaker 3 Or you could, you could like I did for a while and then it just stacks and stacks.

And then eventually you're right.

But, but then you got to get a little bondo.

Yeah. They just like, uh, like this perfect segue you'll like, it's like compounding interest, which moves us into the next point, see what I did there, Mike. I love it. So talk about finances. You know, we've talked about some of the other F bombs. We know what it did with your family. Now we've talked a little bit about your faith and then we just kind of segwayed into what it did with your fitness and nutrition. So what about finances? Finances can be, you know, a lot of different things, but Mike and I talk about this a lot. Fitness is an investment and we just, we're talking about that. You know, it's funny that this was our next point because whether we want to say it or not, when you are physically fit, for whatever reason, more opportunities can and will come your way. It's just, I don't have any studies to back that other than we see it happen all the time because it just, it opens a lot of doors. So, has this, since you have, and I'm not just saying it because of how you look, it's your whole mindset. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying. It's the mindset shift along with how you look and then how you're perceived by other human beings. It's just human nature. So has, since you've gone through this process, has there been any other career opportunities, coaching possibilities, or just a shift in how you view money and your journeys, like I want to start doing this? Has anything changed in the finance as well? Speaker 3 Yeah, definitely. Definitely a shift on how I viewed money. I was fairly stable as far as the money thing after the first 100 pounds, because before then I basically blew all my money on fast food and that was back when it was even cheaper than it is now. I went to, where was it? The Starbucks.

Can I mention specific companies? For sure. Speaker 3 I went to Starbucks and got some egg whites and I can't remember how much what the egg bites, which are great, but they were like, I think two of them together was like $15. It's like, geez, I could just go buy a carton of eggs and just, you know, anyways. Yeah, it's definitely helped that. I think I've gotten more ambitious. Well, I know I've gotten more ambitious when it comes to wanting to make sure that my resources go into the right places. I'm a lot more disciplined. I already had some systems there, but I'm able to lock in a little bit more and I have better ideas on what to spend my money on. So now when I have like spending money most of the time I just want to spend it on like improving my health. So most of it still goes to like responsible things but the responsible things are enjoyable. So that that's mostly how the mindsets change and of course like everyone else I'm like I should start a business. You know, that's, that's a general thought that I always have. But overall, definitely ambitions gone up.

We've had a couple of conversations about ways that you could improve income sources as well. And I don't know if you would have been thinking about that with the old Bailey, right? So to see just your mind change and to think about, you know, how do I drive different outcomes for for myself and my family long term is just really great to see. And I think it does come from the confidence you're gaining and all the other things you're learning about self discipline through this So, let's get to some takeaways for our listeners. You know, you've been there, you've lived it, you've done it. What are some actionable things? What are three things that our listeners could do if they're feeling like, man, I've got to make a life change and how do they start in their own transformation? Speaker 3 Boy, no pressure. I would say, trying to think of what I've helped with. I helped one guy lose 100 pounds and I did it pretty easily.

Good for you. Good for him. Speaker 3 Good for him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he put in the work a hundred percent. The biggest thing I think. So we're in such a processed food world and because those drugs are so powerful and I do mean that processed foods are drugs. I mean, they're insanely addictive. I don't think it's realistic to get somebody that's on a hundred percent processed food diet and eating out diet to go straight to whole foods. For a lot of people, it can really make them just crash because they think they can't do it. And then anyone who thinks that processed foods aren't drugs, get off of them for two days and see how your mind feels. Because I can remember exactly what happened to me when I went-- so the first thing that I would say is start off a little slow. Learn how to track food. Learn how to track the food that you're currently having. And then when you figure out what calories you need to have in order to lose weight, have a bit of what I call healthy junk food. It's not like 100% healthy, and it's not 100% junk food. But if I want a candy bar, I could have a Quest bar that has 20 grams of protein. And it's a little bit better. It's going to have a bit better of the situation going, and you'll have more satiety afterwards. So from a health perspective, I do think that for a lot of people, leaning off is important if they're having to do this long term. The other aspect, and most of it-- y'all talked about all this before, but movement. Movement is medicine. I believe that walking solves a lot of problems, not just that, but mentally. I can tell you I've had some of the best ideas ever just on a walk. So getting out and just getting sunlight and walking. Mindset would be the third one. And then also, your circle influences your mindset more than many of us realize. I know that's constantly the case for me. I am the people I surround myself with to a certain degree. And so having the mindset of I can do this, it just may take longer than I expected. But good things take a while. Great things take longer. So if you want to do anything great, it's going to take a while. there's going to be some level of sacrifice to it, but that's what makes it worth it. And getting the right friends that are going to support you in that journey and having your family on board makes a huge difference. And I would say it's kind of a requirement to have some sort of support system of people that are willing to talk you through and remind you of how far you've gone because a lot of people aren't going to notice their changes after a while. And so for somebody to come up to you and say, "Hey man, I saw you walk in two miles the other day. You couldn't even go half a mile when you started." You know, that's huge. That's a huge perspective change. Or someone sees how you're eating and they say, "Oh, that's fantastic, man. Good for you." Which, that one can be a little harder. It depends on where you live. But I know in the South, we love our butter and fried chicken. So, you know, the buffet style of endless fried chicken may make it difficult, but there's plenty of people out there that are willing to support you. Get involved with the gym. There are a lot of really solid people there. Any gym is going to have people that are going through something similar with you. And I can tell you when I started going to this gym and the gym that I go to is a legit like bodybuilder gym. And there's all sorts of people in there, not just bodybuilders, but it's pretty intimidating to walk into. I walked in there, the first guy that I talked to was huge. Went over to him and said, "I have no idea how to use this machine. Can you help me out?" And then he turns around, he looks really scary because he was just in the middle of a pump. He turns around and he goes, "Oh yeah, man. Here, let me show you." And then he goes over there and he shows me everything and everybody's always been extremely supportive. So I highly recommend getting involved with the gym just for the community aspect, even if you're not necessarily looking to use it a whole lot, because you can find a lot of really great friends there and it helps along the way, a hundred percent.

I couldn't agree more. And I think, you know, first of all, I'm glad I'm in your circle or you're in my circle, I'm not sure which way I can invite myself into that group and all three of us together, but, but, you know, I, I, the one thing that was most surprising for me on my journey, and I'd like to hear your thoughts about this, is that circle in particular, a lot of people who I thought would have been behind me who cared about me physically, mentally, whatever part of my family or my friends, and I think they still do. But they were the most they were the biggest naysayers about what I was trying to get accomplished and how I was doing it. And I'm being too strict and I'm not doing this and I'm not stretching enough. And I'm not, you know, there are all kinds of new, I can't Can you really sustain this that long? And then the people who I found who I never had met in my life, people like you and Shane and other folks that we all know, were way more supportive and way more engaging and trying to help each other get there and people in the gym who were big scary dudes that I didn't want to talk to when I first walked in for sure right now we're like gym buddies. But so did it surprise you who was in your corner and who wasn't during that cycle? Speaker 3 Yeah, 100% never ceases ceases to amaze me. Because I think what happens is generally one. I don't know about you guys. But I said about 10,000 times I was gonna lose weight and I didn't. Yeah, I lost. I mean, I failed seriously, probably 10,000 times before I got it. Right. And so there was a certain aspect of that where my family's like, OK. All right. So it took a little while, you know, like I had to prove that I was going to do it. Right. I think there's a part of that, but also there are some people that definitely once you start changing in a positive way and maybe and personally, I think it's an insecurity thing. I think some people look and say, well, they're doing really well in this area. I may not be, you know, they say something mean or whatever. There's I'm sure there's a lot of reasons, but yeah, it definitely, it never ceases to amaze me. I've met, I mean, I met a guy that was a huge bulky dude and we went rocking together and nicest guy. And we had the deepest philosophical conversations and was the most supportive guy ever. And then I've met some people that were the exact opposite, but generally they weren't in the gym. It's just kind of strange. Like it's the exact opposite stereotype that I expected from the fitness community. Hopefully that answered that. That was a little random.

Yeah, no, that's perfect. Helped me to help explain how you felt through that process as well.

So Bailey, back to the social media aspect of it, you know, you talked a little bit about the positive reactions from having the right circles and the right things and also how you found your journey and quite frankly how I found mine. So how can social media with all the bad and everything else that's involved, how can that be a positive thing? How can someone make that be positive Speaker 3 and use it to their advantage? Yeah, one of the best things that I learned from, I think it's from Bedros, I think it's from Bedros Koulian mentioned this, was that leveraging social media with your inner circle is very, very useful. So what I like to do, anyone that goes on there onto my profile, they'll see a story pretty much every day. And whenever I finish a workout, I'll take a screenshot of some sort of proof that I did it and put it on there. But what you don't see is I put tags for people that are in my circle that talk to frequently and I drag it off screen. So you can't see it, but I'm tagging these people and saying, Hey, here's a win for today. And a lot of the other people also do that, tag me. And so we keep the momentum going of just constantly encouraging each other. So it's been a really neat thing to see how we can all encourage each other on that space. And it keeps it a little more positive on social media for once, you know, so it makes it fun.

No, absolutely. I love that. I love doing that. That's awesome. Love seeing your wins, too. Speaker 3 Thanks, sir.

Yeah, listen, Bailey, you've been awesome. Your story is fire. We love you. And so thanks for coming on the podcast, man. And you know, you guys heard this is not just about losing weight. It's about gaining life in every F-bomb category.

Absolutely, Mike. And if this lit a spark for you, go follow Bailey on Instagram. He'd love to see you. He'd love to chat with you. You know, make sure you find him at @notbaileyhit, which I do love. That is his handler. Speaker 4 Um, it is actually, it is actually him.

So go, go follow Bailey and check out his journey. Go back and look at what he's posted and see the remarkable transformation that he has put himself through through resilience and Adversity and pushing past it. You know what he to his point earlier if you surround yourself with You know Quality stories of people that have been in your exact same spot and has been pushed ahead Guess what you plant that little seed it can be done. I can also do this, too sixth. You surround yourself with five people with positive mental attitudes, you're going to become the sixth one that can follow on those same footsteps.

So, let's just say thanks to Bailey and goodbye. Thanks a ton, Bailey. Great to have you on the Speaker 3 show. Thanks, guys. I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me on. I'll keep tagging you and

annoying you with the… No, please do. We love it. We love it. And remember, team, your transformation starts with a decision. Commit, follow through, and don't give yourself an out. And remember, the decision is just the first part. Then you got to jump off the log.

Absolutely right. Well, Mike, let's put a big old bowl on this episode of the Leadership Podcast. Leadership Ignition Podcast, my apologies. And until next time, let's get lit. Bye, everybody. See ya.

Thank you for listening to the Leadership Ignition Team podcast. Speaker 4 Go to our website at www.leadershipignitionteam.com to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, engage with us, and find again favorite podcast networks, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.