Jimbo Stewart: [00:00:00] Here we are. The boys are back in town, back at the bootcamp. You guys don’t even realize you only had to have two episodes without us, because we recorded a few ahead of time in South Carolina in anticipation of my vacation. The Lord in his sovereign Goodwill, predestined us to record those episodes ahead of time because old, old Bobby, oh, Bobby Robert boy, the replant guru, man.

I was scared for a minute there. He, uh, he had to leave us for awhile and, and battle old COVID-19 and he has come out victorious, and beaten the virus. And now I finally get to have a. Face-to-face at least virtually face-to-face conversation with my good buddy Bob for the first time in like a month, man, it’s been way too long.

Bob Bickford: It has been a month Jimbo. I got the Rona. And, let me tell you, there were. There are some moments there where it was, it was a very concerning. So, I am thankful to be in [00:01:00]recovery and moving in the right direction. And I’ve still got a few lasting lingering effects of the Rona here and there, but may and I, this week’s been a really good week and I, I think I woken up, uh, the last two mornings and felt probably the most normal I have in over a month.

So I really, I crossed the month. timeline on the 20th. Right. So I was exposed about the 25th and contracted it obviously, and then battled it for, instill, battle it to, to this day. But man, you know, it just makes me really, cognizant of, we’ve got a lot of church members and pastors and friends and people who’ve really had to do battle with us.

It’s a, it’s not a fun thing and it’s a serious deal. So I think for the grace of God to be here and back at that boot camp, man, I’ve missed it. I’ve listened. listened to those episodes and, uh, you guys did a great job carrying on and my absence, but man, it’s going to be back at the.

Jimbo Stewart: Yeah, we had a couple, like we said, down up from South Carolina that brought us a little bit of time. And then we caught, uh, an episode with a long time listener. First time caller, Josh, [00:02:00] Wally, the life group height, man, talking with Alan Stoddard. And then we had the visiting professor, Evan Skelton, come on and talk a little bit.

And so those were all very discipleship focused and, glad to have them. But man, I can’t, I can’t tell you how glad I am. To have you back on the screen with me at the.

bootcamp, so that we can, we can be back together doing what we do best. This is where you belong. Bob.

Bob Bickford: That’s right along at the bootcamp.

Jimbo Stewart: They have talked to me. How you feeling though? I have to believe that the thing that has cured you is that your beloved Arkansas Razorbacks have made it into the top 10. you know, I think they got word that their most loyal fan was down with COVID and struggling. And, I heard that the, that all these games were dedicated to you and Barb and your recovery.

Bob Bickford: I don’t know about that Jimbo, but as a Razorback fan. And let me tell you, I have spent a lot of time. In a chair and on a couch watching [00:03:00] some TV. And I’m here to say that as many channels as we’ve got there, ain’t much to watch on TV. You get through it pretty quick. And let me also tell you this. I think I found the end of the internet.

Like I’m just, I’m kind of done with everything. but man, my beloved Razorbacks, they’re doing great. And let me tell you also we’re excited here in St. Louis. We’re a, the run of 21 gym. the St. Louis Cardinals have 16 in a row and tomorrow night, Barbara and I, for my very, very late birthday present, we’re going to go to the Cardinals game.

So I’m praying that we don’t lose because the big birds have shown up at the game. So

Jimbo Stewart: I’m telling, just give me just like the Razorbacks man. They’re going to do it for your recovery and it’s going to be a record-breaking amazing, wonderful time.

Bob Bickford: Yeah, well, we pig suey and go-karts.

Jimbo Stewart: Yeah. I was going to ask you if we’ll pick sillies for Arkansas, the cards have, I mean, it’s just go cards or.

Bob Bickford: they have this, every year, they kind of come up with some kind of phrase and I don’t know what it is, but most of the last couple of years, it’s, time to fly. Right. And so you go to the park and you see this picture, it’s time to fly. Right. So, [00:04:00] That’s about all I know we don’t, you know, everybody cheers when they come out, but I don’t, we don’t say go cards, go.

We don’t have some kind of bird call. We don’t, you know, nothing like that, but just go, yeah, go cards. They’re playing. It’s crazy. How good they’re playing right now? It’s insane. It’s been fun to watch.

Jimbo Stewart: Well, I’m glad all your teams are doing well. LSes struggling. And, the boot may be in jeopardy this

year,

Bob Bickford: Yeah.

Yeah. Well,

we’re going to have to have that bet. So, uh, I’ve got the hog hat and I’m more than happy to ship it to you, to, for you to put it on your head and take a picture and, maybe

Jimbo Stewart: We’ll see, we’ll see what happens. Come November. I told my sister, I, would love it if that was the only game Arkansas lost all year was to LSU.

 All right. Well, on this episode with you coming off of COVID recovery, we wanted to talk a little bit about health in general and, uh, the, uh, pastor’s health and. Yeah, all those sorts of things related because you had some close calls there for a little bit, [00:05:00] and I’ve been on a little bit of a health journey myself, as we’re gonna talk about some more as we get going into it.

but just even introduced to the topic. I was looking up some statistics on, pastors and stress and health and@soulshepherding.org here. Just a couple of there’s a lot of statistics on there. Here are just a few that really stood out to me. One is a 75% of pastors report being extremely stressed or highly stressed, 90% feel fatigued and worn out every week.

90% work between 55 to 75. Hours per week. and all of that stress, as we know, does not do a good, good things to your body, to your mind, to your soul. And, and so it just emphasizes the importance of us getting healthy. 70% of pastors say they have lower self-esteem now than when they entered into the ministry. That’s such a depressing statistic, [00:06:00] 37% of pastors, exercise at least three or four days a week as recommended, only 37%, which means 63% of pastors don’t exercise the recommended amount. and you know, if you think about the stereotypical pastor, he’s not a spelt fit, good looking fella.

when you think about who is the typical. pastor, he’s usually a little more rotund, in our tribe.

Bob Bickford: That’s true. And, you know, Church planters are different from church pastors and re planters. And, you know, so you might get the replant, you might get the planter, that’s, you know, got the, you know, tight t-shirts in them, biceps and you know, all that kind of stuff. But most of these, most of pastors, are older guys.

I think the average age Lifeway said now into the fifties. and because of that, the changes in your, physical composition and age, and because you. said a lot. And because you visit people a lot because you eat a lot, like, I mean, it’s, it just catches up with you. [00:07:00] one of the things that is easy to neglect for, for pastors soon, really for anybody is just your health.

and so I think it’s important, especially, I think that’s one of the things I realized when I went down with COVID is I was not in a. physically healthy place. I I’ve gained weight, lost weight, gained weight, lost weight. And I was in one of those gain cycles where, you know, I wasn’t, I was just not healthy in a good sense in COVID is really one of those diseases that, one of the comorbidities is being overweight and not being healthy.

And so I was really kind of in a place where I think it impacted me in a different. than if I’d have caught it maybe five or six years ago when I was a little bit more felt than lighter and you know, that sort of thing. So I think that really, for me, Jimbo was sort of a, an eyeopening event and I’d just begin to kind of question a lot of things.

And one of those was just my physical health.

Jimbo Stewart: Yeah.

I think a lot of times it requires some moment that makes it matter to you. That creates that sense of urgency. Even if you think about the leading change processes we’ve talked about of where does that sense of urgency come [00:08:00] from? I, I have over the last. since may, have been working on getting healthier physically, and, and just a lot of ways.

And my, my motivation was two things. One was on the day that I graduated with my doctorate, I decided to weigh myself and it was the largest number I had ever seen on the scale. and that began the motivation, but it did not get me in the right direction. My motivation was I had gone to do a console at a church out of state, and we went to lunch and I’m sitting at this booth, Bob and my belly won’t fit between me and the tape.

 And the pastor I was meeting with had the same struggle. Now, granted, the booths were kind of small, but we’re still sitting there at this lunch in both of us are struggling or their bellies to stick it into the table. And, and it, you know, it wasn’t quite a, I thought I might die of COVID moment, but, It, [00:09:00] it was a eye, eye opening moment where I thought, okay.

okay. I should probably do something about this. And so I began a journey that I’m, that I’m on to get healthier, lose weight, and I have lost a little over 45 pounds since then. even in that process, Since may my thinking about why I’m losing weight and how I’m approaching food has changed and morphed and evolved.

And, initially I would say my motivation really was just, to not be so fat that I couldn’t sit in a booth. that was, that was kind of the. The main motivating factor. but it was also that same trip that, I, I needed, I needed another shirt for something. And so I went to, like a Ross dress for less or Marshall’s or something like that.

And I couldn’t find anything that fit me. and like I had to go to the big and tall section and get a shirt and I was little, I was like, all right, I couldn’t fit my belly on the booth. And I just [00:10:00] had to go to the big and tall section. It’s time. It’s

Bob Bickford: Yes. Yup. I had to, uh, when I, I did a wedding this summer at park city, Utah, I had to buy, a suit, because the ones that I have in my closet and I jumble, I know I rarely wear a suit if I’m I’m marrying or burying, I’m wearing a suit. it’d been some time since I’d done either of those things.

And so I had to upsize in a suit and, uh, felt the same thing. And so, you know, one of the things that we’re, we’re talking about here, There’s there’s different kinds of like there’s there’s health issues that are biological that are, are not related to diet, but then most of our health issues really centered around what we eat.

and so I think one of the things I’ve, had to learn over the years and I’m really keying back into this is I have to figure out what my deal with food is. We all have a relationship with food and some people say, you know, why don’t you just approach it as fuel food is fuel.

So you just eat, you know, put good fuel in and just eat it. But you and I jumbo, we love good food and [00:11:00] we, you know, like to eat good food in you look in the scriptures and the feast days of the old Testament, God says. You know, the fat, like eat of the good food, like celebrate. And so I think you can have this relationship with food where you just always celebrate with food and reward yourself with food.

And I think I would do that particularly after a stressful day or, you know, some kind of hard thing in ministry where I would just go, you know what, I’m going to grab a Reese’s peanut butter cup and a Dr. Pepper, because it’s been a hard day, right. Or. My whole world is just chaotic and crazy, and I can’t control any of it, but the one thing I can control is what I ordered to eat and what, how much I order.

And so I’m going to order what tastes good and what I like. Right. And so I kind of got into this and had this relationship with food, through my, you know, all of my life where we’re weight has become an issue, but my relationship with food has also been an issue. Right. And so good food. Has it become a God in the sense of a little G right?

Like, I, I can’t wait to have some [00:12:00] good food for what it does for me. So I think one of the things I just encourage guys is to figure out what your deal is with food and try to be self-aware in that.

Jimbo Stewart: Yeah, I’ve always struggled with the idea of food is just fuel. Like you said, because a one, I honestly don’t know that. And if that’s your, your mentality, I’m not trying to be offensive to you, but I just wonder, like why would God make so many different flavors and so many different textures and profiles and, and talk about things on the feast days.

And, I really think, I honestly think God intends for us to enjoy. Good food. but the problem is we’ve been wired to, to believe that good food is really fatty, rich food all the time. And that every, that every day is a feast day. and I had that because I have access to what I, so my original motivation was. To, to just not be so fat. it really was my initial, like, all right, I’ve gotten too fat. I just want to get, I want to lower that. Some, in, through that process, I realized I really needed to think through that [00:13:00]some and started praying about it and talking to the Lord about it and studying scripture.

And here’s what the Lord convicted me. Personally is for me, food became this compartmentalized arena of my life, where I sat on the throne and no one told me what to do. I didn’t have to submit my decisions to anybody. I didn’t have to think about anybody else in my decisions, but I could order whatever I want to eat.

And I would order for the purpose of glorifying me. This, this is going to make me happy to eat this food and eat this much of it and drink it with this and dip it in this sauce and do like I was going to make it as, as rich and tastes as tasteful as I could make it tasty as I could make it. And, and it was all about my greatest in the moment. And what I realized is what I done is given myself like a sandbox to play in that and where I get to play king, or I get to play king of the universe. And I wasn’t submitting it to the Lord and thinking [00:14:00] about the fact that. Even in those moments, my decisions do have consequences for other people. They have consequences for my wife.

They have consequences for my children. They have consequences for my ability to work well. They have consequences on my witness to lost people that care a lot about health. They have consequences just in a lot of ways. And so I, I, I’m not flipping all the way to food is just fuel and just eat whatever you need to eat and make it perfect about macros and.

I don’t know that that’s even what God intends for us to do. but what I have done is said not every meal is a celebration, And so like, I don’t ha I don’t need to get the best tasting richest thing available at every meal. And I D I need to steward well, the body that God has given me so that I can use it, uh, to be a good husband, to be a good father, to be a good co-labor with Christ for his bride, and to honor him in those things.

And in that I have to [00:15:00] think about for me, not only. What I eat, how much I eat and how often I eat those things. but how active I am. I had become incredibly inactive. and so I started becoming a lot more active in adding, nothing crazy. And so a lot of people, me and my wife both had been losing some weight and lot of people have been asking us, so what are you doing? What diet are you on? and we’re not on any specific diet. We aren’t restricting any particular food items. but unless there’s some compelling reason for me not to, I try to eat just about the healthiest option I have at my disposal at the time. Uh, so today I went to two today. I had a lunch meeting at a chicken wings restaurant, and, I ordered some fish tacos and in a good fish tacos and enjoyed them.

if I, the other thing I’ve been doing is if I overeat on one day, then the next day I do intermittent fasting, to try to equal that out long story short for me. Is just realizing the biggest deal was less the specifics of how, or even how much weight I lose, as what is my motivation for eating in Is it just, is it [00:16:00] just so that.

I can be in control and feel control? And if so, That’s self worship and I needed to submit that to the Lord.

Bob Bickford: That’s good. I think a simple plan is important and you’ve got to work the plan, right? So some people would go real, real detailed with the plan and they’re counting things and they’re filling the apps out on their phone and, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And I used a real simple plan. the last time I went on a sort of a diet deal and a sort of book called the four hour body.

And basically it’s, it’s a keto diet and you get a big cheat day on Saturday. Right. And so you can just do that. So it was real successful. I lost about 30 pounds on it. it was hard because it felt restrictive because, Uh, six days a week, you know, I wasn’t able to eat certain things. And then on Saturday, which was the TTA, I just went nuts.

And so I felt I enjoyed eating on Saturday, but I also felt crappy on Sunday. So I was like, yeah, that’s not good. But I, think here’s, my suggestion is whatever plan you feel like you can do, that would work for you and you can commit to it. Yeah. It can be incorporated in your [00:17:00] lifestyle and it doesn’t become a form of legalism, but it becomes a resource to you do that plan.

Right? Whatever that plan is, but get a plan, maybe talk to some people, get a plan, work the plan. one of the things I think from. Especially y’all coming off of COVID is we, you know, we’re doing a lot of reading about COVID and why it was so bad. And what you need to do is you’re covering one of the things that is has come up is the inflammation that’s in our bodies really kind of works against the healing process in fighting off COVID.

And one of the things that leads to inflammation is sugar. And one of the things jumbo, I’m just going to tell you, I love me some sugar and I love sweet things and that. That sort of thing. And the primary vehicle that I love sugar to be delivered to my body is doctor. I have, I’ve made a decision.

I just, I can’t do it like I, and here’s the, one of the crazy things about COVID anything that’s really super sweet. I just can’t handle, like, I just can’t, I can’t take it. I, it tastes way too sweet. I just don’t want it, you know, that sort of thing. And [00:18:00] so. Sugar for me is one of those things that I’m just really, really restricting and saying, I can’t get on it because I have, in me, I’m wired up in such a way that if I’m the, if I’m going to go down and Sugarland, I’m going to go to me and I am going right.

And so I’ve just put a fence around that. and so for me, the personal decision, knowing my composition and know how I’m wired, I’ve just decided. and I can’t do it right. I can’t do it. And there’s almost a, kind of a, what I would say is like a really healthy, holy reverent kind of fear about that, I don’t want to inquire.

I don’t want to just bring stuff back into my life without really, weighing, weighing it very consciously. I want to be careful now. I’m not a diet soda guy. I never have. I want to genetically, when I drink a diet soda, I really, I taste, it tastes really strange to me in some people, I guess, that doesn’t.

Taste strange to them. So some people will do sodas and diet sodas and things like that. But for me, jumbo, I just had to make the decision. I’m going to have to be really, really cautious and careful with sugar. And, and right now I just have to avoid it. you know, it’s been, man, that’s been hard because, you know, your mind, your [00:19:00] mindset goes, man, I I’d like something sweet right now.

And I’d like, and I want that. I crave that. So. fortunately, I’ve been able to break that, where it’s not as big a deal, but for me, that’s just one things I’ve just become aware of during my COVID recovery process.

Jimbo Stewart: Yeah, I think that’s the thing is, the plan doesn’t need to be legalistic. it does need to be simple, so that sustaining. And understand yourself well enough to know what your boundaries are. Right. And so I know for me, it’s very easy for me to drink my calories in, in milk or, or in soda or things like that.

And so, outside of special occasions, I have limited myself to pretty much Just water her coffee, black coffee, and that’s it. That’s about all I drink. But I, as soon as we come towards a land on this, speaking of the not being legalistic, I do want us to say that, you know, the idea that these days is there are moments where it’s good for us to celebrate and enjoy.

you know, we got to do in the midst of this diet process, we, I got to baptize my. And we had a [00:20:00] lunch afterwards where we had brisket and we had all kinds of good stuff. and I ate, a good bit, but here’s what I realized because I’ve been, I’ve been being more mindful of that. I wasn’t as hungry.

I mean, I didn’t eat as much, because what I was doing is making every meal, I feast meal. And when every meal is a piece to be old and none of them are special or. And just being mindful of, you can still indulge with things. You can still enjoy things. we were on vacation and man, I had bread pudding and I had cobbler and I had been yeas, and things like that.

But those weren’t every day and those are rare occasions. I didn’t need the whole thing. And just figuring that out. Part of it is about being physically healthy, but also part of it, I think is about a good spiritual understanding of what it means to submit every part of your life to the Lord. and just give that to him.

also want to give the, disclaimer that neither of us claim to be health experts, or, health coaches,

or.

Bob Bickford: Just look at us.

Jimbo Stewart: Yeah. Just, [00:21:00] just take a look and you’ll see, this is, we’re not speaking as if we’ve figured everything out, but we’re just trying to be transparent and honest with you guys. And the journey that we’re on in this process.

Bob Bickford: absolutely. I think to two things as we kind of wrap up here, the first thing is, is man, it’s really easy to neglect your health when you’re in ministry. It just is super easy because you’re, you’re given all the time. You’re engaging spiritually. You’re praying people, you’re preparing messages. And so there’s this kind of this idea of, well, you know, I’m, I’m really serving the Lord and I’m really doing the work that he’s called me to do, et cetera, et cetera, but it’s really easy to neglect your health for a lot of reasons.

And then I would say this, if you don’t address your health prior to the physical crisis, a crisis is going to force you to have to address. And so one of the things I always say is if you’re listening out there and maybe you’ve had to buy a new suit for a funeral or a wedding, or you’ve had to up-size,

the department where you shop and you see family pictures from a couple of years ago, and you don’t look like you used to look, you know what, those are all things that might be pointing to.

Just a point of [00:22:00] awareness, Hey, maybe I need to get serious about this and, and do something about it. And, and I would say, man, do it before you enter into a crisis and you absolutely have to. and so for me, COVID was the crisis that caused me to realize. A whole bunch of things. And one of those has been my physical health.

And so Lord willing, I’ll continue to move in the right direction and I’ll be, uh, going back into some of those suits and some of those jeans that are in the backpack part of my closet. by God’s grace, I’ll be in a different place in terms of physical health in the coming months. And so, man, I want that for myself and I just, I want that for our listeners, if that’s where they are and they’re ready for that.

yeah, just encourage one another in that don’t judge each other, right. I mean, we’re, we’re not here to condemn or, criticize. We’re here to talk about. Something that Jimbo and I both have, just personal convictions about for ourselves. and so we’re just sharing our story. And if the Lord is speaking to you through it and calling you to a different place than man, we want to encourage you and support you, and we would cheer you on while [00:23:00] you go for it.

Jimbo Stewart: And for $499 a month, we can sign you up for our 60 day plan. The guaranteed you’ll lose a 700 pounds. no, we have nothing to sell you. and we are definitely not experts, but w it’s part of submitting every part of your life to the Lord. All right guys, Bob, it’s just incredibly exciting to me to have you back, in my life beyond text message

and, uh, knowing that you’re, that you’re, that you’re alive and you’re here and you’re gonna make it.

and I love you. I’m grateful for you, and I’m glad we’re both on this journey to get.

Bob Bickford: Great to be back Jimbo and great to be back with the bootcampers.