God and the Dad-Bod: Practical Ideas for Honoring God with Our Bodies

Jesse:
Hey friends, Jesse here, producer for Go Mad with Doug and Brad. Today we ever so cautiously approached the age-old legend of the dad bot. Doug and Brad talk through working up to a dad bot and working down to a dad bod, but Even more so, how our bodies are key in our lives as ambassadors for Christ. This episode is really practical, but not in a three steps to health success kind of way. Doug and Brad share some insights from their own experience of how we can best glorify God with our bodies. So without further ado, let's go back

Brad:
Welcome back everyone to another episode of Go Mad with Doug and Brad. We got Jesse here with us. Hi Jesse. Now I gotta tell you we uh today we're covering a little bit of a different topic because I'm not saying it's because of this, but we are entering a time of year where your kids might be bringing candy home all big in big buckets.

Doug:
So much candy you're gonna be sitting down at a candy's for the children.

Brad:
You're not suggesting. Oh, so now you're saying you don't test it for safety reasons? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what I do. Test. Three pieces of each kind.

And you have to test it. Then we go to the things that we're going to do. Giving dinner table and the things that can the stretchy pants and all of that.

So today we are talking about Thanksgiving pants.

Doug:
Yeah, once a year. Oh man. And then of course My wife makes those incredible Christmas cookies. I tried that a couple years ago. What a mistake that is.

Brad:
Well, but so we're gonna talk today about Dad bods. Now we're not gonna this is not a we're if you look around this room, yeah, this is not a fitness episode. Not a fitness episode. In fact, Doug, what did I bring today? You know, this is this is pretty good.

Doug:
I uh we don't always have these, but Brad chose today. Of all days to bring a big box of munchkins or Dunkin' Donuts. But they're small, so they're fine.

If you eat ten of 'em, you're it's not good. But why are we talking about it? We're gonna talk about dad bodies, but not just dad bodies.

I mean i ev even if you're uh a lady listening today, you might Yeah.

Brad:
Let's just talk to the dads out there. Let's talk to dads.

Doug:
It just seems I know it can get a little sensitive. If you're of the female persuasion and you're listening, you might also hear some things that would help today because we're we're talking about how our appearance, how our health can affect our ambassadorship as representatives of Jesus to our family, our friends. Yeah. And how it can just how it can just affect our day-to-day lives. We're gonna actually get to some practical advice On, you know, again, you're not if you're looking for how to look great by a Christmas vacation in your bathing suit and I'm not sure I guess if you're in Florida, that would but even if you're trying to look great by summer, you're there are other podcasts for that, but we're gonna get to some practical stuff that we think will help.

Brad:
Quick note. Before Jesse, you gotta give us a dad bot definition. So people who may be tuning in are like, I have no idea what this is, but let me just say this.

Right now, if you're sitting there listening to this with someone. Take the elbows, put them flat against your side, and don't move them for the rest of it. No elbowing each other like, oh, did you hear that point?

I may put on

Doug:
Too many pounds.

Brad:
I can't get them flat to my side. Hold on a sec. Wow.

Oh no, I can. There they are. Jesse, elbow free episode.

Jesse, what is a dad bot?

Jesse:
Yes. Dad Bod definition from urban dictionary. Oh, from the internet, so it's official.

Very reputable. Okay. Very official.

Dadbod is a male body type that is best described as softly round.

Doug:
Softly round.

Jesse:
Uh softly round.

Doug:
I just spit out my munchkin.

Jesse:
It's built upon the theory. Alright. It's built upon the theory. That once a man has found a mate and fathered a child, he doesn't need to worry about maintaining a sculpted physique. Now wait a minute.

Doug:
Isn't like the ma it's the mom that's eating for two?

Brad:
Why does the dad get a get an excuse for me? I just can't get past softly round, and I also can't get past the point of th thinking so Since I had not found a made or fathered a child before I had a dad bot, what what was it called? I don't want to hear answers to that. I don't want to hear.

Doug:
So you may just Just have a little bit of the gut the dad bod thing. You may have be graduating into bad bod and and everything in between. We're gonna talk about all of it.

I found a great quote about dad bods. Um this is a little less official But this says, uh, if human bodies were cuts of meat, the dad bod would skew more marbled ribeye than filet mignon. Or if human bodies were sea mammals, Dad Bot would be more like a grazing manatee than a speedy dolphin.

Brad:
Grazing manatee.

Doug:
Dad Bot is more mudslide than mountain, more soft served than sorbet. More sad trombone than clarinet. The dad bot is built for comfort. Think Chris Pratt from before he was on Guardians of the Galaxy. He was a guy on Parks and Wreck.

Brad:
So You might need to pause for a moment and just process all of what just happened here.

Doug:
So okay, Anna and I are taking on the massive job. Have you guys ever tried cleaning out your garage, especially if you've like moved there from somewhere else? organizing our garage.

It is it is taking forever. I'm like the other day, I kid you not, I'm like, when did I buy Sesame Street Elmo slippers? I mean they were my size.

They weren't size for children. I don't know where they came from Who's danced the Macarena VHS instruction tape is this?

Brad:
Sorry, I left that at your house.

Doug:
Oh, that's right. Sorry. I mean, we're still finding stuff we never unpacked.

from like when we moved in twelve years ago. But here's the thing. We found like these old school pics.

Have you ever found these pictures of when You were maybe in a different weight class as a wrestler or just weight class as a person. Yes. And and I we found I just found a few.

See, look, we are Um, I'll get back to the picture in a second. But we're we're I I think if you're asking, well, what kind of qualifications do these guys have? Let me talk about this for a second.

I mean, yes, actually Brad and I are ordained, as scary as that might sound. Jesse is going for his M Div. Um we're we're serious about the word of God, but that that's not what actually gives us Some qualifications.

Did they the qualifications is both Brad and I, we've lost a lot of weight in the past, put it back on, even lost it again. I'm kinda in between those places right now. We've had our struggles with food And back and forth.

And so those are your qualifications. You're among friends if uh if this is you. So anyway, we find these pictures.

And uh and let's just say, you know, it was about twenty years ago. It was like right when I was out of college. I I had been working out like crazy.

And my son, my ten year old son, looks at the picture very innocently, says, Daddy, yes, son. Why was your face so much smaller then? Wow.

That's an ouch. That's an ouch. There's no comeback.

Brad:
There's no because there were my beard My I've been stung by bees repeatedly to the last. Well see, I have something uh almost on the flip side of that, I do have those pictures of when I was Rocking like freshman year of high school, 165, football player, all this stuff. But then there's this picture of me at this amusement park with my kids.

And we're in this ride, and I do the whole selfie thing before we start the ride. I was wearing an orange shirt. Now it was just go figure, it's actually from a donut store.

Orange shirt. Yeah. And all I could say, uh we're looking back at pictures.

Now I had I was tipping the scales close to, and I don't talk about this a lot. But I was tipping the scales close to two ninety at the time. So when you say credentials, I've got credentials here.

So I'm working my way towards a dad bother. Can you work your way down to a dad bot? So that's my goal.

The uh but I've lost uh about 50 pounds. So we look back at that picture and I said, family, why did you let me leave the house looking like a pumpkin? I was like, I look like a giant pumpkin.

It's just all orange. So it is so we're talking about experience, the weight loss journey and everything. And it's and there the great thing is, like Doug said We're gonna be talking about some practical things today, not go we're not even going to say go join a gym or anything.

Now everyone knows that stuff practical stuff.

Doug:
We we've got we everyone knows that stuff. We'll and we'll get to that. In a minute.

You know, it's interesting. I was reading up um on the dad bod thing, and you know, s a actually in our culture, it turns out dad bods aren't always like an awful thing. I was reading this Big planet fitness uh poll that they did and it is so weird.

It says like it says like women are are Actually by a little over fifty percent more attracted to guys with a dad bod than like a chiseled physique. And it has something to do I know. I I I was like, is is planet fitness or planet fatness?

Oh no, but it was what you did there. Thank you. But it was uh no and and it was because When they see that, there's something inside them that says this is a guy that's putting his family first, that has his priorities straight.

Isn't that interesting? I get that.

Brad:
No, I could see that. But here's the thing not just a gym rat that it's like, hey, I've got to look a certain way, but someone that maybe has a little more balanced balance in life.

Doug:
Exactly. But here's the thing. What about when the dad bod starts turning a corner into a bad bot.

And and we've been joking a little about our ourselves here, but we know. I mean, there's some dark nights of the soul, man, sometimes where where you're just like, I hate how I feel, I hate how I look. I've been there.

I was there a little while back and I really had to get honest with myself because I started to recognize I I wasn't exactly treating my wife And my kids with the same level of patience that I that I had. And and I started to realize that even though I know that what I do with my temple has to affect my ambassadorship. It started to become really real.

And I'm a representative of of Jesus, whether I always act like it or not. It might not be fair, but people may not listen to us as much when our bodies are getting out of control. Let's let's face it to some people, and they might not exactly put it this way, but it might be confusing to the people we love, even when we tell them how putting Jesus as the Lord of your life hasn't translated to making him necessarily the Lord of your body.

Brad:
Yeah, and I think that's what we really want to make sure that uh everyone's hearing today is this has been a struggle for us and what we realize is that We're not there there are health conditions, first of all. As we're talking today, you may be like, hey, I can't help it because of this or whatever. We get that.

There are situations like that. We're talking about Really caring for the temple as best you can. The reality is is that to me, I was talking with a uh friend, he does CrossFit and everything, and I'm not that guy, but He was talking to just kind of the strategy there and their thought process and he said what I really see this as for himself is stewardship.

He said that when you look at this so much of our lives, I'm gonna use is it okay to use a pie example? On a on this episode of that work or something. We've got Dunkin' Donuts, Pies, think you've got a pie.

Pumpkin pie, it's the season. You put whipped cream on one slice of it. You're like, hey, I want whipped cream on this pie.

You put it on one slice. Well, okay, so it only affects one area of your life, but if you put that whipped cream in the middle of it, you put it all around. It's affecting every piece of the pie there.

Oh, wow. And when we look at stewardship of our lives, so many times as followers of Christ, what we want to say is Well, this area's kind of cordoned off right here. You know, what I watch, that well, that doesn't affect me.

What I eat That doesn't affect me, but this is about stewardship because when Jesus is Lord Lord, really truly Lord of our lives It impacts everything. Our whole life, it's not physical and spiritual. Everything is about spiritual life walking with Jesus.

Doug:
The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things. And we just know how to lie to ourselves about these things, man. And boy, does it affect everything.

Affects our relationships, especially our close ones, man. Trying to rep Jesus to our wife and kids, be ambassadors, as we always try to talk about on this podcast. Man, lack of sleep, eating too much junk.

Sitting on the couch without getting our heart rate up and no watching Sunday football does not count. Oh my goodness, yes. It it makes us tired, uh less sharp mentally, and it affects our emotions.

Uh the read the science on this, it's all over the place. It affects our emotions, our confidence. As crazy as it sounds, there's actually a connection between that fourth piece of dominoes and losing your temper with your wife, with your kids.

Brad:
Jesse, when we were talking about this the other day. You brought up just kinda cause if you see Jesse, he has a different uh makeup than we do. But Pre-Dad bod. Pre-dad bod. But I was I you know, you brought up something as far as when you eat certain foods and what it does to you. I

Jesse:
Can you tell us about that? Yeah. Oh well I mean ten, fifteen years ago, it didn't seem to matter what I ate or how little sleep I got or how much caffeine I had in my body.

It just seemed like my body could just handle it. And the older I get, the more I realize my body is telling me, no, you can't handle that. And it's making it more obvious by affecting my mood, affecting how irritable I am.

I am far more prone to be irritable with my family if I don't get exercise if I don't get sleep and if I don't eat something decent. I I do I go to the gym twice a week Very quickly. Very, very simple workout.

Gotcha. Not to r not even really to try to improve anything um about physical strength or anything. It's just for my own mental well-being.

If I don't get some sort of movement in, um, I am far more prone to Getting down the dumps.

Doug:
Because it affects our ambassadorship. And you brought it up, Jesse. Jesse's in his early 30s. I'm 51. Brad is seven. I'm under fifty.

Brad:
I'm uh I can still say I'm under fifty.

Doug:
But and yeah, the older you get, we all know the more this becomes, the more difficult, the more it becomes reality. And yeah, so let's get to some scripture here because what we eat does affect us physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. It's all connected.

So check this out. As always, God knows best, and he's got some great wisdom. on this subject.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, May God Himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole. Make you holy and whole. Put you together, you're ready for the spirit, soul, and body, and keep you fit For the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.

We we know that scripture. We've all heard that one. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?

whom you have from God, you're not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God in your body and in your spirit, which you're God's. And guys, I don't know about you honestly, but when I've heard the scripture I tend to think more about don't use your body for things like sexual sin.

You know, y the body is a temple. But but there's nothing in that scripture that says that's all that's about. I rarely think about how not taking care of my temple By what I eat also dishonors God.

But when it starts to affect whether people will listen to me, and when it starts to affect my relationships, I have stopped honoring God. because of what's going on in my body.

Brad:
And I'll say as you were sharing Jesse and as you were talking, Doug, it really it's been true in my experience too that's the thing. When I take care, when I when I watch what I'm putting in, the old computer programmer's turn, garbage in, garbage out. that if you program garbage in, you're getting garbage out.

And I so have noticed when I cut down on sugar intake, when I cut down on too much of this or that, whatever. food group it might be that leaves you feeling dragged down because that varies even for some people depending on what your body makeup is but I have noticed for me That especially when it comes to sugar, if I watch that, I think clear. I have more energy to be with my kids and to care for my wife and everything.

So it really does matter how we handle this temple that God has given us.

Doug:
A couple more really interesting scriptures that I started to look at a little differently. Ephesians 5. 29.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. So hang on. I mean To me right there, it's sounding like you want to actually be hating your body and your own flesh.

You put junk in it You nourish your flesh. It's not talking about the spirit here. It's talking specifically about this physical body we have.

Do you realize if that's scripture. . For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church.

Do you realize how much healthier I would be if they would just put that up next to the hot sign at Krispy Kreme's Just put it right next to it. I'd probably drive on by. Romans 12, 1.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is your act of spiritual worship. And let's get real here for a second.

Sacrifice is the right word here when you're trying to make better choices. We love what we chow down on for a reason, and no one here is saying to not ever eat those foods. They taste good.

God has actually given us food for a reason to enjoy it, especially the stuff that He gave us directly. But no one here is saying Never have pizza. No one here is ever saying never have a donut.

It's just a case of figuring out when it is affecting you, when it's starting. to dishonor God because you're dishonoring your body and doing something about it.

Brad:
So Doug, we've got all of this and we clearly see that the word of God points us to Caring for the temple and for being good ambassadors and how we live, which impacts even how we eat and everything else. So some practical steps. Let's start with this one.

Cut out the worst stuff for you one thing at a time. Romans twelve, one. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

This is your act of spiritual worship. Here I'm gonna tie this actually with the next one and and give a short hope story here. Cut out the stuff force for you, but don't crash diet.

Because here's the deal. When we were um on uh serving on the reservation in the southwest there and missionaries out there There I am, and I'm like, man, I've got to lose some weight. And so I did a very popular diet which cuts out carbs It is just like you cut out carbs.

I can eat all the bacon I want. No, but I'm a I'm the carb king. I love carbs.

And so I'm just like, okay, I'm gonna cut out. Guess he's the bread guy. He's the bread king.

But that's the thing. I cut out All of this one thing at once. I did this crash site, guess what?

Two weeks, lost 15 pounds in two weeks. The next two weeks, they say now start adding healthy carbs back in. I had like one bite of a carp and I'm like, and I mean it's just like so And you gained 19 points.

Yeah, I mean I wound up right where I started because I didn't look at this as a, hey Let's start trimming back on some things that aren't healthy for me. Let's do this in moderation. Instead I said, cut this whole thing out.

Do a crash diet, do a fad diet, and that's not the way you're gonna be able to do it.

Jesse:
Brad, the verse that you put at the beginning of that is so helpful for keeping that in context. Presenting your body as a living sacrifice, seeing anything to do with your body. uh whether it's cutting back on certain foods or trying to stay fit as an act of worship, not merely self-discipline, that really helps As a motivator and it helps um it keeps being fit from being a matter uh an unspiritual matter. It brings it into the whole of life, like you were saying. That's a great point, Jesse.

Doug:
And and let's be honest, a lot of believers, and and I'll ride the bus on this one too, a lot of believers just don't include this as part of holy living. We look at the internal a lot, which is great. But we compartmentalize.

So we're we hope when you jump on this podcast, we're always given some practical steps on how you can be a better ambassador. Let's get a couple more of those, Brad. Couple of great ones cut out the worst stuff for you, one thing at a time.

You'll do it a little bit at a time. Uh crash diets don't really work. Here's one.

Add one vegetable to one meal each day. Do it for like a week or a month and then maybe add a second one, a third one. And I want to be clear here.

French fries, not vegetables. You beat me too. I was kissing ass.

I I I baked a different. My son did try that on me the other day. I said, Did you eat your vegetables?

He says, I had a lot of them.

Brad:
I said, honey, did he have his he's talking about French fries, dear. I just I'm sorry, but I'm picturing this uh clip from the show The Office where uh the character Kevin is being fed broccoli. And he just he's like, I'm gonna try to eat broccoli and he starts eating the wrong end of it.

He's like, I'm just gonna eat it. And they're like, that's the wrong end. There sometimes He's never had it before.

Sometimes it's so uh such a small step of A. Add a little bit more of veggies to your life. Fill up your plate more with that than the other stuff.

Doug:
And I hate to spiritualize it, but look out. Look out. Genesis 1, 29 and 30.

Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed in it, they will be yours for food to all the beasts of the earth. And all the birds of the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Everything that has its breath of life in it.

I give every green plant for food. Yes, God wants us to eat vegetables. I got another one.

Try praying before you choose what to grab from the fridge or you order a restaurant. Now before you roll your eyes at this one. Try just trust me on this.

I've done this. Memorize some scripture about your body and pray on it before you decide. We're constantly at war with our flesh.

According to the Apostle Paul, it's always a battle between the Holy Spirit in us and our flesh. Give your spirit a shot at being part of the decision. We always let our eyes decide.

So let your waistline stand a chance by by praying first.

Brad:
Well and we're told pray continually. prey on in every type of occasion. Why not there?

That's right. I can carry at the Olive Garden. I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this in there.

Exercise. Now we talked a little bit, Jesse. You were saying that we're not talking about some big exercise plan.

For me, it was just a matter of saying, you know, I got a Fitbit, watch. And when it gives me the alerts that, hey, you've been sitting here and it's almost the hours almost up, it got me up and moving. And then it got me to a point where I'm like, man, I want to get to this certain step goal for a day.

And so I would just do I start off walking slowly on a treadmill and then you you're gain endurance and everything. So it's not about doing everything. It's about starting and doing something to get your heart rate up.

A couple times a week so that you can do the things we were talking about, about being there for those you love and being a good ambassador for your neighbor, for those you work with. Being there as long as you can, as healthy as you can for them. I remember when you got that Fitbit, that actually really did make a big difference for me.

Doug:
It really did. It's like would you jobs for shaming me as I'm sitting watching my favorite?

Brad:
And you know, the show is really for me The key word I want to say, and Jesse, I think you made a good point. Self-discipline doesn't work. The power of discipline that comes from the Lord does work.

And when you have the right motivation, so we kind of uh I I define it as this saying no to something now, this is discipline, in order to say yes to something better down the road. Yeah. It's just a practical definition for it.

And that could mean that I'm able to Play with my kids more. I've got a bad lower back. Losing the weight has helped that a lot.

So I'm not hindered by that. Honestly Intimacy with your wife, not because you look better. I'm it doesn't hurt, but it's not because you look better, but because you feel better.

You're able to be to just have a more intimate relationship with your wife.

Doug:
The older you get, if you're listening. You're nodding right now. The older you get, the more of a reality this is.

And I'm just, I'm talking you like past your early 20s, man. I mean, it just starts to become more difficult And and we gotta work harder, guys. Let's just let's just commit to praying that the Lord will give us the kind of discipline.

That it takes to do these things. We're in this together. Um, I don't know about you guys.

I'm about to go out for like a f 14 mile jog after this. So please come look for me by the side of the road. I got one last quick practical step.

We can wrap up here This this is a might seem like no big deal, but I promise you if you'll try this, it is going to affect Everything, including your metabolism, according to the science, go to bed earlier. Come on. Try turning off the Netflix.

You can finish the karate kid later Study after study making it clear sleep affects everything. Do that.

Brad:
So Yeah, and I will say take those first. Steps. That's really good.

And that's what today was about. We want to be able to help. Oh, there you go.

Literally. Wow. I think that for us here We just want to encourage you that these are this is a journey we're all on.

And we just wanted to share some of this with you because we our prayer is always, as Doug mentioned before, that you can walk away from an episode saying Man, God cares about this area of my life. And these are ways that I can start taking steps to be a little more like he might want me to be in this area. So it's not about even what the scale says It's not about a body type.

This is about just having a healthier outlook on life and being able to pursue Jesus with all your heart.

Jesse:
Shame is a terrible motivator. But love is an awesome motivator.

Brad:
So wait. Say that one more time.

Jesse:
Shame is a terrible motivator. Love is an awesome motivator. Let your love for God and his love for you be enough motivation to take those first steps, not because you feel bad about yourself, but because you feel loved by God.

Doug:
Jesse, because that's so awesome, you get the honor of wrapping us up in prayer here. Let's do this. Let's just pray for all of us that will move forward with this kind of discipline and and and a new desire to honor God with our bodies.

Jesse:
Father, we love you. You gave us our bodies. You gave us our spirits.

You care about both, and we want to honor you with both, but we need your help. Let our worship Come from what we do with our spirits and what we do with our bodies. And would you guide us in that?

Would you show us areas that we are not loving you or loving others concerning our bodies And help us to take those steps forward, knowing we're loved by you, knowing that we are not earning your love But going out in the power of your love. Thank you. We trust that you're going to help us and we look to you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Amen

Brad:
Well, everyone, thank you once again for joining us for one more episode of Go Mad. We can't wait to see you again next time. Until then, Haig, as we always encourage you to do. Go like us, give us a review on Apple Podcasts, share this with a friend, and until next time.

Doug:
Well, hold on. I've got to finish this. Gomad