Ep 1038 | Jase Grapples with a Traumatic Memory of Granny’s Chickens & Tim Tebow Teaches Him a Lesson
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Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton? And time just stands still. I am unashamed. What about you?

We got one of the biggest Christian podcasts out there. Who does? We do. Us. It's a big podcast. Chase, if you hadn't figured it out, we're kind of a big deal. Kind of a big deal. I mean, it's a niche market, but we're a big fish in a small pond. I don't believe you. And it's because of Unashamed Nation. That's why. Welcome, by the way. We're rolling now. So, Zach, you were just giving us your travel plan. So where are you headed and what are you doing?

I'm going to a little town that we like to call Portland, Oregon. Ooh, spiritual oasis. Yeah, well, I'm actually going to a conference on the Holy Spirit. And Jace, you'll never believe who is going to be one of the keynote speakers. Oh.

Tommy Lasorda. Okay, baby. Rum Dodger heaven. You are going to guess, but you'll never guess right. That's probably what I should have said. Al's wearing Dodger stuff. I got a lot of Dodger blue today. Yeah, but he's polluted the American flag with his Dodgers paraphernalia back there. That was a gift from my children. Yeah.

Because they were so excited for me because my beloved Dodgers won the World Series this year. How are you a Dodgers fan? I don't know how that even works. I have been a Dodgers fan. Well, speaking of Tom and Lasorda, Jace brought him up as a joke. He first got hired in the mid-70s for the Dodgers. I was just coming of sports age. Jace was still just a youngster. He hadn't gotten there yet. And I was about 10 years old, 11 years old.

And all we had out at mom and dad's was three channels. And so I got to watch Saturday baseball, Major League Baseball. So it was either the Yankees, the Dodgers, or the Red Sox. That's the only teams. Not the Braves? Back in those days. This is too early, Zach. That –

That comes along with the 80s and 90s. TBS there. TBS and WGN, the Cubs. Highlighting my age, I grew up, the only show in town was the Braves. If you grew up in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, anywhere in the southeast, I thought it was against the law to

not which the tbs made the braves what they are no doubt you're younger than me even though you're bigger you're younger hey easy time easy the weight comments are starting to sting a little bit jay so i'm just saying everybody every time uh people come up asking me stuff they're like they keep talking about my older brother i'm like al they're like no willie i was like

No, I know this is a hard concept to get past. Even though he's bigger, I'm older. I'm the big brother. In spite me being smaller than my younger brother. I was just bringing that up. So during the 70s, I had to make a choice out of those teams. And they had just hired a new manager. I love Lasorda. He's funny.

And so I just became a Dodger fan. And so I started watching them and Jace and Willie both, I guess because their older brother was a Dodger fan, but they were Dodger fans when they were kids. Cause I had posters up and was always, I remember the Cowboys. Are you a Dodgers fan, Jace? He was. Well, I was, uh, then when I started meeting famous major league baseball players, everything changed. Uh,

Because then I just started supporting people who followed Jesus, who played Major League Baseball. And a lot of the people I met who I was fans of, when I met them, well, I no longer became a fan because of obvious reasons.

decisions that they had made and you know I can't support this guy yeah you know I mean it just so now you don't have a team you just have players kind of like fantasy sports you just root for the player no this is real this is real these people are real and I support them if you love Jesus and you're on a Major League Baseball

stage and you're you know when you hear those little yeah i love those little statements like you know somebody wins a world series or they you know they win the national championship they're like well first of all because they'll say well what were you thinking when you caught that touchdown pass and they said well first of all i just want to say all honor and glory goes to my lord jesus christ i love that

And I'm like, okay, I like this guy. I don't care if my team lost or not. Has that translated over in college football? Is it all LSU in college? No, I'm all LSU. And my friend Tim Tebow, and I don't use that term lightly, my friend Tim Tebow helped me with that because the first time he was at my house, he was like, Jace,

When I played at LSU, those were the worst anti-godly fans. He just took the gloves off. And I said, well, now you see why I'm here. Yeah.

It's a mission failed. He played at a Christian school, so it was probably hard for him. No, he wasn't. I said, now you're trying to tell me that that wasn't going on at the University of Florida. And he said, okay, Jase, it was. I'm just saying, these people, they got my phone number. I'm just saying, if you look back at the last two years,

trophy winners at the University of Florida. They're both out there

Very outspoken Christians. Tim Tebow, and you guys know who the other one is? Danny Warfel. Danny Warfel. Yeah. That's something to be proud of, Zach. I'm not making light of that. It's just how we, I mean, we're all good. Oh, by the way, that was 30 years ago when you had two guys. We just had two guys in the last five years. It's on now. Plus, we're basketball school anyways. Everybody knows that. Well, you are now. I told Tebow, I was like, look, though.

The greatest storytellers in our nation are from Louisiana. So if you get these people hooked on Jesus, hey, think of the possibility. Okay. And one other thing, Al, I was a casual Dodger fan when we were kids because you were all eating up with it. And that was all we watched.

But I will say this, when Kirk Gibson hit that home run in the World Series against Oakland, because that became a spiritual moment also, because Ben Scully had the famous line. And if you don't know the history of that, I don't really want to go through it, because where were you?

But, I mean, he had won it back in the World Series. They should make a movie about this. Won. Because he was injured his leg. Now, if you listen to it, it was like, you know...

The leg was non-functional. I mean, it's like it was a miracle that he just walked up there. So, Jace, he won the MVP that year for the National League, but he never played in the prior series or after this one at-bat. Yeah, one at-bat. For the whole postseason, one at-bat. Against Dennis Eckersley, who was at that point unhittable and all this. Yep.

So, and it was like, didn't even look like he swung that hard, you know? Right. And just, the ball goes out, and then Vin Scully famously said-

The impossible has happened, which then I took note because I don't like any advertisement who uses godlike qualities or play-by-play commentary. Because, well, it wasn't impossible because he did it. This goes back into the series of movies that Tom Cruise did about Mission Impossible, and then he does it. So what does that mean? That it's possible. No, it was a lie. Exactly.

You ever wake up, you look at your kids, you think, man, this thing is moving quick. I think of it like Dad used to always say, the resurrection is looming larger every day, Zach. That's true. It's a great point. Well, that's where our friends come in. You got to plan for death, right? I mean, I do think about that as I look at my family growing and how do we actually provide for them. And in the case that I die, I'm the breadwinner of my family. And so, yeah, I think life insurance is a very important part

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The name of the movie is a lie. You call it Mission Impossible. You know why? Because we're all fascinated with doing the impossible. But we have Luke 1.37. I mean, Jesus did things that were impossible. When you're dead and then you're eating fish three days later. Okay. That was when the impossible happened. That's Mission Impossible. That was Mission Impossible. Yeah.

That happened. You misquoted his line a little bit. His actual line was, the improbable has become the impossible. No, I think he said the impossible has happened. No, he said the improbable has become the impossible. Check it out. Unashamed Nation sees right. I'm going to have to look this up. I'm pretty sure he said the impossible has happened.

You just ruined one of Jace's. He's had that in his speech box for- I could be wrong. He probably used it 15 times. I could be wrong. Well, let me tell you why you're looking that up, who is coming. Yeah, I was fixing to say, Zach, because this whole rabbit hole that we just went down, thanks to Jace. All right, we're both right. We're both right. Okay, we're both right. I like that. Yeah, we're both right. What was the line? The line was, in a year that has been so improbable, the impossible.

has happened. Oh, there you go. There you go. So that makes more sense. Yeah.

Wow. That's a pretty good memory on y'all's part, I have to admit. Well, I'm saying when he said that, I was like, oh, I actually hit my head on the ceiling fan. My mom was there. It was like midnight because they're playing over weird hours in California. You know what's funny, Jase, is I missed it. You know where I was that night? It was a Saturday night. I was in Tiger Stadium watching the LSU football game and missed –

But we had had a brand new thing that weighed about 50 pounds that I had just bought sitting on top of my television called a VCR. Wow.

And I had just gotten it. And the first thing I ever recorded on my VCR was that game. So I was able to watch it. Well, now you can just look it up on the internet. You call that a core memory. That's a core memory, Al. That's a core memory. Well, here's what's funny. Well, here's what's funny. What the impossible that happened was when I tried to jump without the adrenaline, I could not, my head wouldn't reach the ceiling. So really. You jumped out of adrenaline. Yeah.

Hit the ceiling fan. You tried again when the nerves had calmed down. And how high did you get? It wasn't possible. It was improbable. But it wasn't impossible. It was my first miracle. That's a joke.

Tell us who's going to be in this all-star team. It just feels so anticlimactic. Well, let me give you something. Al, if you're going to be a Dodger fan, that needs to become your mission field. I'm going to take LSU.

You need to, because I'm just watching some picture. I don't watch the news with the sound on, but it just looks like there's something going on in LA that needs Jesus. Oh, man. That's all I'm going to say. You're right. I have a very big mission field there. They were protesting something, but I didn't have the sound on, so I don't know

with the war. It's just immigration now. They almost lost me two years ago when they got into some things that I just, you know, they caved into some. You know what I found fascinating is they had water hoses out there because somebody burned a flag and I was like, I don't know if I'd be wasting that water.

You know? Somebody said, why are they setting fires to things in L.A.? That's not good. Well, exactly. You're setting fires? I mean, I don't know. So you need to take that out of your head. All right, I'm going to work on that, Jay. It's my new mission film. All right, Zach, who's going to be important?

I mean, it really is. And at this point, I mean, we've gone so far. You just not want to tell us? Well, I mean, it's going to be N.T. Wright, which Jace mentions on the podcast a lot or two. Me too. Yeah, you do too. Well, see if you can get him on the podcast. I wouldn't mind listening. I mean, we quote him all the time. I would love that. He may just – I mean, where's he from? England? Scotland? Yeah, England. England.

And he may look at, I don't know if he can get past the cover. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I'm going to. The cover of the podcast. Yeah, he may not. I don't know what he'll say, but I definitely will ask him. Yes, if he will. I'd like to. I mean, we do have, but to be fair, I mean, we do probably have the largest coverage

online Bible study in the world, if you think about it. Come on. I don't believe you. I don't know. The Bible in a Year thing, that's pretty big that the Catholics do. There's another one. The Bible Recap is pretty big. So I guess those are probably bigger. But you said one of the biggest. One of the biggest. This is one of the biggest Bible studies in the world.

Which is kind of crazy to think about. I just came up with that. It's pretty good. Well, are we actually going to study the Bible then today? I think we should. Hey, you ain't going to meet me backing up. I mean, I've been trying to get into John chapter two, which I mean, my goodness. No, you're not getting there today. I know. That's what I'm saying. It's going. I mean, we are inching our way through. So let me bring us back to speed. So we left off.

With John the Baptist and his... I have an objection, though, Al. My objection is the reason we're taking so long to go through John 1 is because John did that. He kind of gave an overview of everything you're fixed to get into in kind of portrait conversation sign settings. Right.

So if you don't get the big picture, he gives you the big picture first. You read chapter one, you're like, whoa. Then you're like, oh, what does that mean in real life? Well, he puts those principles and fulfillments of Jesus in these real-life conversation setting signs. I think it's one of the, if not the greatest literary books

portraits that can be read, whether you believe or not. It is absolutely fantastic. It's actually, if you had one thing to give people to read, to try and understand this thing about Jesus, it's the best book to give them. And to your point, Jace, the other gospels are structured where they just tell the story from birth to going forward. Mark's a little bit different because it's condensed, but

You're right. John goes at it a completely different way, and we do too when we study it. So that's one of the reasons why we've taken so long. Yeah, it is my invitation where I speak. I hate to give you a spoiler alert because I have a lot of events coming up. This is the invitation, is go read the book of John and say, who is Jesus? Right. Because whatever that conclusion that you make will affect whatever you do the rest of your life. Yeah.

That's true. I mean, it's just, it's profound. It's the way it's written. You want to know what God is like? Here it is. Jesus revealed himself.

the Almighty God in human form. So in the first chapter, John now, who has kind of just laid out this big picture in the prologue and in the description of John the Baptist, and now he's going to get into the calling of the 12, the beginning of it. So now it begins to kind of pick up with what's going on in the life of Jesus. And it's interesting because John the Baptist says,

is a transitional figure. I mean, his role was to come here and point to Jesus. When Jesus gets baptized by John, and all of a sudden this trans, you know, major happening happens with the trans figure happening with the spirit coming down, the voice of, you know, God said, this is my son. And so now John the Baptist realized it's time for me to fade.

into the background because he said all along, there's one who's coming that I'm unworthy to even, you know, tie his sandals up. So we're at that moment. I want to tell you about our friends at the Tomorrow Club. These guys are amazing. You know, the Great Commission is very clear that we are called to go make disciples in the nations.

That's exactly what these guys are doing. Right now, I want to tell you a little about something that's going on in Delphi, South Africa. It's a community struggling under the weight of extreme violence. And while poverty is visible there, there's just constant gang warfare, devastating impact that really defined the life in this small, troubled area. Boys are recruited into the gangs. The girls are recruited into prostitution at a very young age. And that's where our friends, Tomorrow Clubs, come in. They are offering hope in this area. I want to tell you about a guy named Mark.

Muhammad. His own story is nothing short of a miracle. He was once a gang member himself. He spent several years in prison before he had a life-changing experience with Jesus Christ, who we all serve, obviously. And in that decision, he made a radical transformation. And now he serves in this area of ministry. There are a lot of students there, a lot of children there, and he's partnering with

the Tomorrow Clubs to bring these discipleship programs into the area. And that's why we're asking for your help. We are wanting to really partner with this ministry because they're working in all of these underserved areas. The Tomorrow Clubs have helped over half a million children learn to follow Jesus through discipleship programs in their Tomorrow Club. It doesn't stop there. We want to continue to have generational engagement

impact with our new partner, the Tomorrow Clubs. You guys can be a part of that with us for only $30 a month. You can provide Christ-centered discipleship to 30 children in an underserved community like Delphi, South Africa. And the way you do that is you go visit tomorrowclubs.org.

slash unashamed to become a Tomorrow Clubs ministry partner. That's tomorrowclubs.org slash unashamed. And when you give, remember that all of your gifts are tax deductible. So we are asking for your help. We want to impact these areas. Would you please join us in partnering with the Tomorrow Clubs ministry to help children across the world? What's interesting is, and we kind of just went through this in the last presidential election, when a transitional figure is still around, it's a little bit awkward.

And so John the Baptist has now faded to the back, but he's still around and he's got his disciples and he's got his ministry set up and he's got all this stuff. But he's got Jesus now, the Lamb of God who's on the scene. And so I think it's interesting as we transition to verse 35 that the very first disciples were actually John the Baptist's disciples, the first two.

So let me read this. And then, Jason, I want you to get into this. And we probably won't get very far today, but because you brought this up a long time ago and I was fascinated by your observation because I thought it was really good. Something I never thought about before about how this goes down with these two fellows, how Jesus did this.

So verse 35 says, and this is right after John the Baptist had testified about what he saw with Jesus. And it says that, you know, he's not the light of the world. Jesus is the light of the world. He testifies. The next day, John was there again. So now we're picking up the narrative with two of his disciples. So these are two of his guys. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look,

The Lamb of God. He's already said that before, but he says it again. He's wanting everybody to know this is the guy. When the two disciples, these are his disciples, heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, what do you want? They said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see.

So they went and saw where he was staying and spent that day with him. It was about the 10th hour, which is about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, we have found the Messiah, that is the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, now Simon, and

And he said, you are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, which translated is Peter. And so these are going to go on and do some more. But I wanted to start out with these first two days because you brought up an interesting point about the way Jesus went about it. So it's very interesting that just as a trivial thing, you're like, well, who were these two disciples? Well, one of them was actually Peter. The other one is not named Peter.

Yep. And I went down the rabbit hole trying to figure out what the deal is here. And guess what? N.T. Wright thinks. I know. Yeah, he thinks that this is John because John, of course, he somehow figured out that he would have been real young here. I'm talking about teenagers. And so...

You're going to see that come up more like when he uses the phrase, the disciple whom Jesus loved as in reference to himself. Right. I don't know why I laugh every time I read that because I'm like,

I think that's funny. Well, he talks about him. You're right. He talks about himself in the third person throughout the book. And so that's one of the reasons why I think N.T. Wright. But by the way, Jayce, he's not the only one because I looked up several scholars and the two that I read along with N.T. Wright when I'm studying this particular book, all of them are

all said they think it was John. And I had never thought that. I had never heard that before. And so I found that really interesting, if that's true. And I don't know that it is or isn't. It's interesting, I think, in this too, you see...

You see it in the demeanor of John the Baptist already. He obviously recognizes he's not the main character in the story. He recognizes that. And even having the disciples stand there and having – he's okay if his disciples go and follow Jesus because he's like, I'm not the main character in this. I think this is –

It's kind of interesting that you look at how he acts and then how sometimes we act in our own ministry. How often do we put ourselves as the main character? We're trying to hoard our influence, and we are forgetting that.

The whole point, we forget sometimes, the whole point of this thing is not us, but it's Jesus. He is the main character. He is the central figure in whatever's happening here. And you see that later, even when Paul was talking about, you know, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you guys. Yeah, I mean, this is because you weren't baptized because of me. I'm not the central character here. Jesus is. You kind of see that happening here in this text here.

How John operates. I've said many times and have gotten resistance on it that Jesus is what the Bible is about. You know, the Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi, he's coming. The Son of Man is coming. You remember Daniel 2, Daniel 7. And he's going to give a little reference to that there in verse 51.

when it says you'll see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. But they would have been familiar with that phrase. Just like what got their attention was this John the Baptist saying, look, the Lamb of God. Well, Lamb, when you hear the word Lamb to us, I don't know what you think. Not a lot in our culture. But for them...

The lambs were part of sacrifices and the system and all that. And it's like, well, here's the lamb of God. And, of course, they're all looking for the Messiah because Genesis to Malachi says, I'm coming. There's a Messiah coming. So then you have Matthew to John. Well, he's here.

We just read it. John 1, 14, the word became flesh, made his dwelling among us. Then Acts Revelation is kind of what happens next. You know, this lamb of God post-resurrection goes to the right hand of God for us. He opened up this presence of God to humans because he's made them clean through the cross. And he showed them there's a way to live even though you die. I mean, that's kind of where we're at.

this situation but the reason I said say that is it's about Jesus and you said why would somebody resist against that because they're like well there's a lot more in the Bible but my whole point is kind of what Zach is saying is that Jesus is the light I mean he's gonna specifically say that in chapter 8 but we've already read that it says the light after yeah what where does it say the light of

Shines in the dark. Starts in verse 4 and 5, yeah. That life was the light of men. Well, so you have this already contrast introduced by John that there's darkness and there's light. You're like, well, that's just an illustration. No, Jesus is going to turn the light switch on. So the reason it has to be about Jesus is because once the light comes on in Jesus, well, then everything else changes.

becomes understandable. Yeah. If you don't have the light, Jesus has the center, well, then you're going to be confused about whatever else you want to talk about.

So, Zach, it's 2025, and I have decided that I'm finally going to get after that weight loss that I've been trying to do for the last year. It's at the top of my list. It's happened. Are you excited about it? You look a lot better. You look a lot less swollen. Yeah. You know, they used to say you get swole up like it was a good thing, but for me, it's hadn't been too good.

You look like you've been un-B-stung, un-B-stung. So our good friends at PhD Weight Loss are helping me because I got some help this time. That was the difference. I was trying to do it alone. Dr. Ashley Lucas, Zach, who you and I talked to, she said something very simple right off the bat. She said 80% of dropping fat is

comes from what you eat. And so obviously it makes a big difference. She's a registered dietitian. She's got a PhD in sports nutrition, chronic disease, and she has a passion for helping folks. She is definitely helping me. They're going to connect you with a person that will help you. Mine is a lady named Rachel, who's now becoming one of my best friends because she helps hold me accountable. I've been going for a little over a month. I've lost about 18 pounds.

What I love about it is there's no gimmicks. There's no pills. There's no shots. There's no side effects because the current weight loss stuff everywhere else has a lot of that going on. And so I love it. It's just eating better. They provide 80% of the food, which is really good.

And I enjoy it. So I highly recommend it. You might already think about, Zach. I mean, I know you don't have as much to lose as me, but, you know, a few pounds might be good. You know what sold me, though, if I do it is when you said this four days in, I asked you how it was going. You said, you know what? Weirdly enough, I'm never hungry. That's it. And that was a big deal for me.

Yeah, it's a high-protein diet. It's really good. So, look, Unashamed Nation, I know there's some of you out there that have been wanting to do something. I'm telling you, listen to Al. This is the thing to try. Join me on the weight loss journey. Schedule your one-on-one consultation today by calling 864-644-1900, or you can visit MyPhDWeightLoss.com. That's 864-644-1900. Tell them Al Robertson sent you.

And that's really, you know, I said that one time. I didn't read it out of a book, but I was like, if you are disconnected from that, to use the quote from Colossians, you remember their problem? They're like, well, how do you forget Jesus? And he referred to him as being disconnected, the church, from the head, which is a nice way of saying you've been decapitated. Well, I don't know if you've ever, the only thing I've seen people

Close to that is a chicken back when we used to eat chickens, Al, that we had raised. Now, we got the eggs and all that, but if a rooster crossed anybody, he became supper. And my grandma, not my dad, she would get an ax, and she had a little stump. This is getting graphic as a warning. And I saw that as a kid. I was like, whoa.

That was brutal. But you know what I found in making this illustration possible is that

Even the chicken without its head looked alive. It did flopping. It ran around the yard. It didn't have a head. That's the phrase. He's running around like a chicken with his head cut off. That's where it came from. But I'm saying if you have a church doing that, there's a lot of churches that look alive and they're flopping around. But if you're disconnected from Jesus, the reason you're having all these theological problems is because you're not viewing that within that light of

This is about Jesus, and that's going to bring out a lot of these other things. And here's why it's got to be Jesus, because when you look at what's happening here, you have two things that we're being told are happening. One, that God has become flesh. In the beginning it was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. And here comes the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

Those seem like two things that are different because the lamb was what they sacrificed for

during the Passover, but then God's here, the Lamb's here, and the point of Jesus is that he is both God and the Lamb. Well, and that's why transitional figures have to transition. I mentioned the presidential election, and we had a guy that claimed he was the transitional figure, and when it came time for him to transition, he stayed. He wouldn't leave. And so this is what happens. John the Baptist understood that. And really, when you think about it, in a sense,

We're all transitioner figures to show people who Jesus is. I had a young man who called me last night

And because he's going through marriage problems. So someone gave him my number and says, is this the guy you need to call? And so initially the conversation was about that was because he knew Lisa and I had been through a lot. And so he called me for advice. But it didn't take very long into our 45, 50 minute conversation where we transitioned about marriage into who's the Lord of your life.

because I knew that the only hope for him and everybody else and every marriage that's out there is an understanding of who Jesus is in your own personal walk. If you don't transition to that, you're never going to come up with enough ways to fix your problems. And so in a sense, we're all transitional figures. Well, and look at the transition that happened to these teenagers. They went from fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, you know, fill in the blanks,

to one day being the spokesman of heaven and God. Yeah. And given their lives. I mean, they became martyrs. Quite the transition. I mean, what in the world is going on? And we're talking about it 2,000 years later. Yeah.

But I would say on that Revelation 5, also, you got to remember when I think lion, well, the power was the resurrection. Yes. Just the ultimate power with every kingdom that's ever been on the earth was to have power and then to keep it. The problem is people die. And that it's kind of hard to be powerful when you're dead because most people lose their influence once they're dead.

And so you have the lion and the lamb. I mean, it kind of is the pivotal moment of what Jesus did as representing God's character in that

cleans the humanity through sacrifice and becoming the lamb, the sacrifice. And then he shows you his power in that, which is the theme of the Bible. God wants to dwell with humans forever. Yep. So I would say, Jay, just to tie this off, if this was these people that were called by Jesus, it was improbable. They made it the impossible. Right.

And they became sons and voice pieces for the Almighty God. I mean, who else could ever say that? What we'll deal with on the next podcast is that study I said that I did before in a previous podcast. And it just hit me one day. But his first words, the first red letters in John is a simple question because they're following that they did not answer.

But that question is so profound when you start thinking about what exactly it means. And when you think of Jesus representing the character of God, you would think he would say, all right, guys, I'm from heaven. Get your notebook out. Write this down. Here's what you need to do. But his first words were, what do you want?

I like it. Which is a good question for every human to ask themselves. I love it. So we're going to leave that hanging. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we've got a very special guest that's going to be our last segment today. So we'll introduce her when we get back. Down to shame.

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LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. As you know, I've been talking about my new weight loss journey. And so as part of our sponsorship, we got a new sponsor, PhD Weight Loss. And as part of that sponsorship, we wanted to invite...

the true expert, Dr. Ashley Lucas, that has founded this amazing program that has changed my life. And we want to have her here to talk a little bit about nutrition, to talk about the things and the reasons why that she started this fantastic group. So Ashley, welcome to the Unashamed podcast. Thanks, guys, for having me.

She happens to live in Asheville, so it's like a weird connection. And her kids go to school at the same school that my kids went to, so it's kind of a small world. Yeah. That's a really nice way of saying that y'all bumped into each other and she said, I think I can help you. Just to give you the setup, Jace has been very vocal about chastising me and Al for our weight recently.

distribution. And thank you, Zach, for including yourself into my morbid obesity. Doc, that is completely false. There's been no chastisement. There's been no making fun. I just simply pointed out what anyone with, I don't even think you have to be 20, 20. Just if you can see a general picture of

I'm just saying what I'm seeing. But he did shame us. And so what I did was at the end of last year, I was like, I'm going to go find a sponsor, someone that we can, a program that would work for Al. And then I got connected with you guys. So it's awesome that now we're doing this thing. And Al, you're in it. You know, and I've been talking about it, Ashley. So I want you to tell the audience, because I've been telling everybody about my experiences with,

and just kind of the way you guys go about it. And when we had the initial, I want to say this before I ask you, but we had the initial conversation with you about the program. Obviously I was taking notes because this was primarily going to be, you know, about me and you explained that,

Things so well, I mean, I've been a part of a lot of different diets through the years. I've done different things to try to lose it. Sometimes I have even lost weight, but I never really understood the science behind it. The human body.

Kind of how it functions. And you did that. And so I want you to talk a little bit about that to the audience because you're so good at explaining that. I watch a couple of videos from you every week because you don't just leave people out there that are in the program. You're giving us things we can use going along, which is another great thing, a feature about this particular product with PhD. So thank you.

Tell our audience kind of what got you into it and then kind of a little bit of the explanation about what people can do to begin to lose weight, especially men. Our audience is more men than women. And we get a little bit older and things start to happen. Yeah, the body changes for sure. So I think I was explaining to you, Al, about the belly fat and how the belly fat works against us. So my story, I was a professional ballet dancer.

I was, I know Jace. I was. I saw that face. Yeah. That was a surprise face. You saw that. I was just like, wow. What? We come from two different worlds. We do. Yeah. And I always fought my body. I was never at the body weight that I needed to be to get the roles that I wanted. I,

I went to boarding school for it. I had a fairly successful career just because I'm so disciplined and I had a passion around it. But I was told that I was fat no matter what I did. I counted calories. I avoided red meat. I exercised after my eight-hour day of dancing and still was too fat for the sport.

And I stepped away from dancing in my mid-20s. I landed in the ER. I was chosen to go perform in New York City, every dancer's dream. And when I was up there, I thought I was having a heart attack. I had no idea what was going on. So they carted me off to the ER and told me that I was underfed and over-exercised, and I just couldn't do it anymore. And to me, that was 20-plus years of struggle and sacrifice. It was my identity. It was like Michael Phelps.

being ready to swim at the Olympics and being carted off to the ER saying, you can't swim again. So it was a huge deal for me. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but I understood how significantly nutrition, I guess, impacted my own sport performance.

So I decided I wanted to help other people so that they didn't have to have this chronic fight against their body. And I believe that there was a way for us to be able to drop weight and be fit and not have to have a constant struggle around it or have to take medications or do crazy things. I knew there was a way to get our body back to its natural state and to operate the way that it was meant to do so.

I went on and earned my PhD in sports nutrition and chronic disease.

And I studied energy metabolism. I think 80% of any change comes from the mind. We have to focus on the mental, emotional, the habits, behaviors. And so I studied that. And then I went, after I finished my PhD, I thought, oh, I'm still not a true expert in the field of weight management. I need to become a registered dietitian. So I went back to school again to become a registered dietitian. But everything I learned there was so inaccurate.

They say, eat less, move more. Well, I did that. It didn't work, and I was disciplined. They said, don't eat red meat and eat six to 11 servings of grains a day. And it just made no sense to me. So I ended up flipping everything upside down that I learned during my dietetic internship. And I did exactly the opposite.

took my research and created the PhD approach. I changed my life and to date we've served over 10,000 people. Collectively, we've dropped over 466,000 pounds nationwide. We reversed type 2 diabetes, chronic diseases,

And I'm just so grateful for the struggles that I went through. I was listening to you guys speak before this and talking about our challenges and how they helped to develop us into the people we are and find our gifts. And I truly believe that my gift is helping people heal and come back to their optimal level of health. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. As I heard you talk, I was like, well, no wonder you have become an expert in this because all those struggles which you quickly went through, I know that was...

really painful. You wind up at the ER. You think you can't do your dream. But it sounds a lot like what God does with all of us. He takes our weaknesses and our struggles and turns them into something powerful where we can help other people. So I'm in on that. I did want to say, I think it's very...

especially to our audience, and I mean who you're sitting with here, right here, because Zach's kind of an intellectual. And when I saw this, I thought, well, this is perfect for Zach because he can say, look, I have a Ph.D.,

In weight loss. In weight loss. Al, you can have a PhD. I think we're leaning on someone else's PhD. Well, but the marketing, hey, is clever. You're like, I did do it. I mean, it gives you something to aspire, and who doesn't want to be smarter? But I do want to say I feel a little uncomfortable because it's like every time I say something, it's kind of like our computers now.

I'm talking to my wife about something. Then you turn your computer on and there's an ad to whatever we were just talking about. Because last night, I'm going to have a confession, Doc. My niece, which is Al's daughter, brought me what we call in Louisiana a king cake because it's Mardi Gras. I destroyed that king cake last night. I ate half...

of a king cake and I justified it because I thought this is representative of the king of kings and they do put green on it because they have these little green and purple frosty flakes. They're like sequins. They're like glitter. Glitter. Yeah. So I haven't eaten since.

But what are the ramifications? Because here I am. I'm in good shape just because either my metabolism is really high, but I'm very active. And I'm not eating a king cake every night, but I did eat half of one last night. Wow.

So this is now an intervention. A king cake is like a cake. It's like a circle pastry kind of cake that's filled with, traditionally, cream cheese. I get the cream cheese. It's very good. It is a Louisiana...

Once a year for Mardi Gras. They put a baby, like a little, it's kind of weird, but they put a little toy baby inside. It represents baby Jesus. And if you find the baby, you have to buy the next king cake. It's a marketing scheme of cream cheese. Did you find the baby? I haven't found it yet. You ate half of it. You ate half the cake. You have a 50% chance of finding the baby. He probably swallowed the baby when he was wolfing down half the cake. Yeah, it's actually quite dangerous, Al.

I mean, there's a danger there. Well, I think here's the thing though, Jace. This is in our first call that we had because I sat in on Al's call. I think there is a point, you mentioned this in our call with visceral fat, that it becomes almost like a, I think the way y'all say it, like an organ, like it beads itself. And so you got to lose, there's like a level you got to get to or you'll just continue to

Talk, because that was like an interesting point. Yeah. So basically our belly fat keeps us fat. So what happens in our lives, generally speaking, is we have these triggers and they change the way that we tolerate our food.

So for men, often a trigger is like something stressful, like a marriage or a relationship shift or a job change. Or we work with a lot of like ex-collegiate athletes who are used to working out at a certain level and eating a lot of food. And then they stop that and they're like, oh, my gosh, the weight is just packing on.

So we have these changes and if we continue to eat the way we did before, we then go through this trigger and now this food starts to accumulate as fat on the body. And we think, what the heck's going on? I haven't done anything different. I haven't made a shift in my way of eating. It's not making sense. So what happens over time is we start to accumulate this belly fat. That's the visceral fat you were talking about. And this belly fat fills up the organs in our belly area, like our liver, right?

our kidneys, all of them, but let's talk about the liver. To the point where if we took a slice of your liver, if you're carrying this belly fat, it looks like a Kobe beefsteak. You know, the marbling and that thick white stuff around it. And over time, it grows its own blood vessels. It gets its own oxygen supply and starts to secrete its own hormones. And all it wants to do is get fatter as fast as possible.

So your belly fat acts like a tumor almost, and all it wants to do is grow and get bigger. So it makes you have cravings and urges and it slows your metabolism. And it makes you lazy because the last thing this thing wants to do is have you get up off the couch and go expend a ton of calories. So Jace, you're in a total different metabolic situation than Al.

than Zach. So like you can eat more than they can. - He's made that abundantly clear. - Well, it sounds like to me that I'm not stressed. I just don't get stressed out. - Wow. - Yeah, I haven't been stressed in probably 30 years.

I just don't do this. I'm like, oh, well. Basically because he ignores most things and people. Al, you had wrecked because you were in great shape until your 40s. Yeah, and that's one of the things that helped me. So actually I nicknamed my belly fat the beast because I had never heard anybody describe it.

where it's almost like you were fighting against yourself. And, you know, we tend to view things through a spiritual lens on unashamedness. But I thought about that. That's exactly what happens at a spiritual level as well. You tend to fight your own mind over different things. And so it was the same thing here. I was fighting my own body. And so at one time, my metabolism, I was like, Jace, I could pretty much eat what I wanted. I was in pretty good shape. I didn't even think about it. And yet all of a sudden, and it wasn't all of a sudden, but over the course of a decade, I

I just, this thing took over and that's what I couldn't deal with. And so when you explain that to me, it definitely in my mind, something snapped that I was like, okay, I got to deal with the beast. And then I approached it like I would a spiritual problem. I mean, we got to get after this and that starts with mind, soul and body. And so that's exactly what's happened. And what you guys provide, it's good food, healthy,

But I have to say, I feel better than I felt in a decade. And I'm only probably 25 percent into where I'm headed. So it's been fantastic for me. And I'm proud that not only that you guys are in my life, but also we get an opportunity to talk about with other people because it can be it's life changing potentially. So what is what is the plan?

I mean, give us the plan overall. Yes. Well, so the first thing is we have to figure out where your unique body needs to be to get rid of the belly fat. Because if you only drop or lose a portion of this excess fat weight, it's just a matter of time until it eats its way back up again. It's like shaving the top off of a weed and leaving the root. It's just a matter of time until it comes back. So that's the first step.

figuring out that sweet spot where the metabolism is more fast and efficient. Then we create a customized meal plan for each individual, guiding them on exactly what, when, how much to eat. It's super precise, super simple, and very specific.

Most men drop about three to three and a half pounds a week on average. Most women, about two to two and a half pounds a week following this plan. We provide a lot of the food at no additional cost. If people want to use it, they can. We ship it to you, no cost. It's just there as a tool because I find that when we have all of the meal planning on you right at the beginning, it's overwhelming. So I'm all into little baby steps to make something actually feasible.

So breakfast, most of lunch, some of your snacks can come from us, but the dinner meal is your responsibility from the beginning because it's all about becoming self-sufficient.

And we do it one meal at a time. So practicing dinner and not eating the king cake for dinner. And then we go and we practice lunch and then breakfast. So by the time someone fully collapses that excess fat weight, they understand what they're eating, why they're doing it. We do a lot of education because I do think it's important to understand why your body's working this way and what's happening and why we're having you eat. Because we do have you eat differently than what you've been told.

We don't count calories. I look at exercise as a good wellness tool, but not a weight loss tool. So we are reframing your mindset about what you thought was right about nutrition and diet because it's completely different. And then the mindset piece. For a lot of people, weight loss is an addiction recovery process. So we can't just focus on what and when to eat. We also have to focus on you as a person and why you eat and the thoughts and the habits.

All of these things. So every week we have one-on-one coaching to work through this and to tweak your meal plan so you see continued success. And then once we get the body where it needs to be, we enter into phase two, which is kind of like the lifestyle integration where we integrate everything you've learned and sustain the success that you've seen. So-

Well, it's working for me and you guys here on Unashamed will get a chance to be a part of my journey. Maybe we can get Zach on board. We'll get to check his journey out as well. Dr. Ashley, thank you so much for coming on Unashamed. Just to explain it, because we've started obviously and supporting our podcast because, you know, we're impacting a lot of people.

with spiritual wellness. And so it's nice to be able to deal with the physical side as well. So thank you for coming on and thank you for supporting the Unashamed podcast. Oh yeah, my pleasure. Thanks so much, you guys. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.