A Life-Changing Shift

At 29-years-old, Bryce Jennings felt like an 80-year-old. Insomnia, achy joints, and lack of motivation were his constant companions.

When Bryce and his wife planned a cruise with another couple, he knew something had to change for him to enjoy it to the fullest. A joint decision was what he needed to begin a life-changing shift that continues and benefits him today.

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A Life-Changing Shift

Ric Shields with Bryce Jennings

Season 3, Episode 1

Ric Shields (00:00):

Welcome to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast. I'm so glad you've joined us on this podcast. I'm Rick Shields, your host and the director of the DoorWays Ministry Network.

(00:18):

Today I'm talking with my friend Bryce Jennings. I'm trying to recall Bryce, when we first met in Mexico City, it was probably, what, 12 years ago? Longer?

Bryce Jennings (00:27):

Well, you know, we started going -- my home church went -- the first year was 2005, so it could have been as early as that, which would be 18 years ago.

Ric Shields (00:35):

A long time ago. I know we were working with the Hamiltons at one point. We worked together and helped buy a keyboard to use in Mexico City. So, yeah, it's, it's been a while back.

(00:48):

What year did you come to Tulsa to serve on the staff at Carbondale Assembly of God?

Bryce Jennings (00:52):

That was 2015, and Jesse and I had only been married for about a month and a half.

Ric Shields (00:57):

That's hard...it's only eight years ago.

Bryce Jennings (00:59):

Yeah. Isn't that crazy?

Ric Shields (01:00):

About, well, yeah, eight coming up on nine, I guess. And how long did you serve at Carbondale?

Bryce Jennings (01:05):

Yeah, so I served there from, it was about May of 2015 to April of 2019. So, I believe my last Sunday was right after Easter.

Ric Shields (01:13):

Just a little plug here. When did you start Jennings Music Academy? What year was that?

Bryce Jennings (01:19):

So, Jennings Music Academy officially launched, I believe <laugh>, funny enough, was 2020.

Ric Shields (01:25):

Oh, wow. Right in the middle of the pandemic.

Bryce Jennings (01:27):

Yes. So, I did most of my lessons virtually because everybody was home and bored, and so was I. So, I kind of capitalized on that. And then I believe it was the following year actually, that I'd grown enough to lease a space.

Ric Shields (01:41):

How's it going now?

Bryce Jennings (01:42):

It's going well. There's eight of us that are teaching and yeah, we've got about 45 families.

Ric Shields (01:48):

I know we talked about this years ago that this is something you wanted to do, and I'm glad that you were able to finally to find the way to make that work. And, and you didn't let Covid scare you away from starting. And actually, COVID is the thing that pushed you to starting it, so that's pretty cool.

Bryce Jennings (02:03):

Yeah, no kidding.

Ric Shields (02:05):

Bryce, you've had a really transformative journey in the past six years. I mean, a lot has changed. You became a father to a beautiful little girl three years ago. You started the academy, you're serving on staff now at Woodlake Church in Bixby, Oklahoma. But the thing I'd like for us to drill down to is your health journey. So let's begin with a backstory of what was happening sometime back in 2017.

Bryce Jennings (02:27):

Yeah. So, 2017, you know, I'm blowin' and goin' on staff at church and everything is going well except for the fact that I feel miserable in every aspect of my life. I had insomnia consistently. So, a lot of times I would fall asleep and then I'd wake up within an hour, and then I'd remain awake for three or four hours. And, you know, that's aggravating. You're just staring at the clock and it's four o'clock in the morning.

Ric Shields (02:53):

I hate it.

Bryce Jennings (02:53):

Yeah, you're just frustrated. So then to go along with that, my memory was awful. And again, I'm not even yet, and I feel like I'm having the memory of somebody in their eighties. So, there was just no clarity. I had a lot of fog. So, I would sit down, and I would try to do a task, and I would just be exhausted and couldn't remember anything, couldn't remember what I was doing. This is not how a 29-year-old should be feeling.

Ric Shields (03:17):

I think you're right.

Bryce Jennings (03:18):

And then my joints were always achy. And if you have to play piano for a long period of time, that is not ideal. I noticed after even sometimes about 30 minutes, I would just kind of not be motivated to play piano anymore because my wrists just, and my fingers just wouldn't want to do anything. My energy was awful. Most of the time, you know, I like to be on the go. That's one of my favorite hobbies is just to be out. I like to go get coffee, I like to go explore. And so, I'd be out of the house for like 30 minutes thinking, okay, it's time to go back and take a nap. Being 29 years old, it was getting really aggravating to feel that way. So that kind of prompted me to say I should do something.

Ric Shields (03:59):

You're a recently married 29-year-old, you didn't have a child yet, you're constantly tired. You had, you had to wonder if there was something physically wrong with you. Did you go see a physician during that time?

Bryce Jennings (04:10):

You know, interestingly, not during that time, but in 2013 when I was still living in Dallas, I was having chest pains really bad, and I was having difficulty breathing. So, I did go see a physician. So, I, I hadn't moved to Carbondale quite yet. During seeing this physician, they took tests of my lungs and they actually said that my lungs were better than normal, probably because, you know, I have to use it to sing all the time. And they said that the EKG showed that everything with my heart was fine. Now I've got doctors telling me that there's nothing wrong with me that they can see, but I feel miserable. Like, I felt like I was having a heart attack a couple of times with just chest pains. Sure. Felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. But the doctors are telling me, no, everything's fine.

Ric Shields (04:56):

I mean, that sounds like classic symptoms of a heart

Bryce Jennings (04:58):

Attack. That, and that's what I, you know, it'd be three o'clock in the morning, I would think, this is it. I'm, I'm going to meet Jesus.

Ric Shields (05:04):

So, they didn't do anything. There was nothing they could do to help?

Bryce Jennings (05:07):

No, because The EKG showed that there was no blockage. The heart was beating properly. So they said, Hey, you're fine. Everything's good.

Ric Shields (05:17):

I hope it isn't inappropriate to ask. What was the most you weighed then? Was that in 2017?

Bryce Jennings (05:23):

Yes. So, I weighed myself December 30, what is 31st of December 2017. And I weighed 288 pounds. And

Ric Shields (05:33):

That's six years ago.

Bryce Jennings (05:34):

Yes. I had no idea coming up that I had. Yeah. I had no idea that I had gotten up to that much weight.

Ric Shields (05:39):

And just for sake of reference, how tall are you?

Bryce Jennings (05:42):

Six feet, right? On the money.

Ric Shields (05:44):

Is that put you at obese?

Bryce Jennings (05:46):

Yes, I was morbidly obese. Yes. No, honestly, I was morbidly obese by all the charts, BMI and everything.

Ric Shields (05:53):

So, something changed, put you on a different path. What happened

Bryce Jennings (05:58):

Leading up to this? We go on a cruise every year with a couple of friend of ours, and they decided that they wanted to do what's called the whole 30, which is like a detox. Right. And at this point, I was just willing to do anything that could give me some kind of an answer. So, the whole 30, essentially it detoxes your body of everything that could potentially be harmful to your body. So, you remove everything, gluten, fried food, processed foods, everything,

Ric Shields (06:26):

What you eat,

Bryce Jennings (06:27):

You can eat anything in its natural form. So, proteins, fruits, and veggies essentially is what you can eat. So that's what I did. I mean, I stopped snacking and I just made sure to prepare everything at home. And that's what I did.

Ric Shields (06:42):

So did these other couple, they, they feel the same way, like, yeah, we're kind of overweight, we're feeling cruddy, let's try something. Or they just, I

Bryce Jennings (06:49):

Think there was a sense that they were feeling crummy, but no, they weren't feeling overweight. I think they just kind of wanted to maybe drop, you know, 20 pounds maybe in, in detox is kind of what their motivation was.

Ric Shields (07:01):

Why did you want to do it?

Bryce Jennings (07:03):

I wanted to do it because of everything that I said earlier. I thought, man, if there's any way that I can go on, well, selfishly, if there's any way that I can go on this cruise and enjoy it, maybe going on this detox. Because, you know, you hear the word detox and you think, okay, that'll probably make me feel a little bit better. Right. I thought, man, if I can just detox and enjoy the cruise and not need a nap every 30 minutes and not have my joint sake and everything, let me try it. I was all in.

Ric Shields (07:31):

When was the cruise in 2018? Sometime in 2000.

Bryce Jennings (07:34):

Yes. The cruise was, I believe, I'm going to make up a thing. I think it was April. You, we usually cruise somewhere around April and May.

Ric Shields (07:41):

And when did you start this whole 30?

Bryce Jennings (07:43):

We all started at January 1st.

Ric Shields (07:46):

January 1st. All right. So new

Bryce Jennings (07:47):

New year. New year.

Ric Shields (07:49):

So, you had three months or so, three and a half months that you were going to try to do something, see if you could feel better, maybe feel better about wearing a, you know, swimming suit or whatever. Yeah. Not, not having to wear a T-shirt or long sleeve shirt. Even <laugh> when you go to the pool. Yes. So, you start this on the 1st of January. What happened?

Bryce Jennings (08:11):

So I started at January first, right? And then within about a couple of weeks, I had already noticed it was random. It was about two or three weeks into it. And I noticed that I had slipped through the night, which I had not done in years. And I woke up feeling refreshed and I thought, okay, well there's something to this. So, I woke up feeling better. About 30 days into it, I had lost 20 pounds. That's insane. To lose 20 pounds in 30 days just by merely changing your diet. I mean, I did not do an insane routine, which I believe we're going to talk about in a little bit, but I didn't do an insane routine for exercise. I just changed what I was eating.

Ric Shields (08:49):

And you dropped 30 pounds, 20 pounds, and I dropped in 30 days.

Bryce Jennings (08:53):

I dropped, I dropped 20 pounds in 30 days, and I noticed that my joints started to feel a little bit better. My dexterity was getting better. So yeah, I mean, those were three things enough to make me think, yeah, maybe I should find out in this detox, what, what have I removed to make myself feel better, which I didn't know yet, but I just knew I was feeling better. So, I, I was like, man, I just need to stay down this path.

Ric Shields (09:16):

So, you kept going. Yep. And as you kept going, you kept losing weight at the same rate?

Bryce Jennings (09:23):

Well, not quite at the same rate, but it was faster than you normally would. So, in January it was 20 pounds. In February it was 15. In March it was about 12. And then from there it started to go down to about like a four or five pound a month rate. But I mean, it was, for the first three months, it was pretty rapid. I mean, it was, it was so astonishing that there were people coming up to me at church asking me if I was sick.

Ric Shields (09:47):

And you said,

Bryce Jennings (09:48):

I said, no, this is the best I've felt in years. Wow. But they were encouraging me to go to the doctor because I was losing weight. So quickly.

Ric Shields (09:55):

Let me take a minute, Bryce, to remind our listeners that we appreciate their feedback. Let me know if we're providing the kind of content that's helpful to you by dropping me an email at info at DoorWays dot cc. And if you have an idea for a gastro for topic, let me know and we'll work at incorporating that topic or that guest into our podcast schedule. You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast. My name is Rick Shields and I'm joined on this episode with Bryce Jennings, a husband, a father, a talented musician, a dear friend, and a man who lost 90 pounds in just seven months, a few years ago. So, Bryce, have you maintained that weight loss?

Bryce Jennings (10:32):

Yes, actually yes. So that in 2018, I lost the 90 pounds. And then this last year by incorporating something new into my routine, I lost an additional 30 pounds. So now I'm actually down 120 pounds total from my highest weight.

Ric Shields (10:50):

So, was the weight loss due just by changing your diet or did you also incorporate an exercise routine or working out, or what?

Bryce Jennings (10:58):

Well, if you ask Jessie, she would tell me that it wasn't really working out because I would do the treadmill for like 30 minutes to maybe 45 minutes. I would listen to a podcast, I would set the incline, you know, pretty high to feel like I was doing something. But no, I in the traditional sense of working out, that was all that I did. So, I didn't lift weights, I didn't do CrossFit. I didn't do anything crazy other than just going to the gym consistently and walking, which I, I do feel like it made me feel better. I'm not sure how much it contributed to the weight

Ric Shields (11:28):

Loss, but yet you've got a place at your house for working out. I mean, we,

Bryce Jennings (11:32):

Yeah, that's Jessie

Ric Shields (11:33):

Jessie's in law enforcement. And so she, you know, she has this workout place and she's got a lot of stuff there. Tools yes. To, to help. But that's not something that you really think made a difference.

Bryce Jennings (11:44):

No, I have, which probably ashamedly, so it's going to change this next year. I've decided that I'm going to incorporate a weightlifting plan this next year. But no, over the past six years, I have not touched a weight.

Ric Shields (11:57):

You've made a huge shift in mindset then, in terms of food intake. Yes. So, would you take a minute just to share about that?

Bryce Jennings (12:08):

Yes. So, the one thing that I started to realize in the early stages of eating this way was that food is fuel. And so, I wanted to make sure that I was feeding my body properly with the nutrients. So, I tried to do a nutrient dense way of eating. The thing that I liked about this whole weight loss is that I didn't feel like I had to starve myself, which a lot of fad diets you will, you'll feel like in 30 days that you're so hungry that then you binge once you get off of it. I, again, decided that food was fuel and to go for proper nutrition and proper protein. And then I also realized that all calories are not created equal. So, a lot of times we'll count our calories for like a 2000 caloric day intake or whatever yours is suggested, but a lot of those calories can be empty. So, if we eat potato chips, you could eat like a whole bag of potato chips and you're not satiated, you're not full. But if you eat a couple of hard boiled eggs and maybe a handful of nuts, then you're, you're full. So, this really helped me to change my, my mindset in that year of 2018. Yeah. That's when it was to if I'm hungry, I'm going to eat and I'm going to make sure that it's fueling my body properly. So, I'm going to try to avoid anything that's going to harm my body.

Ric Shields (13:30):

One of the things you mentioned to me was this, this common question of what you, what you put in your body. And you said, would you put water in the gas tank of your car? And you said, emphatically no. Yes, they're both liquids, but one has the proper ingredients to make the car run. That's, that's a good analogy.

Bryce Jennings (13:50):

Yeah, I, again, I started to realize that because so many of us are taught to believe that calories, it's calories and in calories out, but that's not necessarily it. And so that's when I came up with that analogy about putting water in your gas tank. Well, yeah, it's liquid in and liquid out, but the car's not going to run very long and properly if you don't give it the proper gasoline that it needs to run. And so, I started to realize that about my body is that when I started to fuel my body properly with veggies and fruits and proteins, that man, I could last for a longer amount of time throughout the day. And the quality of what I was giving back to society immensely changed.

Ric Shields (14:36):

Let's say you're working out, you're at the gym, you work out really hard, your goal has been 2000 calories for the day, but you've really worked out hard. Can you go home and just say, okay, great, I worked out hard. I've got a four or 500 more calories I can take today. Let's have a bowl of ice cream.

Bryce Jennings (14:53):

I would say no, because ice cream does not fuel our body properly. In saying that I do eat ice cream, but I make sure that the ice cream that I eat is made at home. So, I make ice cream with like bananas pure maple syrup, and I avoid refined sugars. So again, I find that it's okay to indulge in things that are sweet, but as long as we make sure that our body can process whatever the sweets are that we're taking in.

Ric Shields (15:22):

Right. So, we've talked about this. Are you a healthcare professional?

Bryce Jennings (15:26):

No, I am not a healthcare professional. Which also makes me think to say that I'm not a licensed medical professional and this information and tips that I am stating are just an interpretation based off of research and what has worked for me. So I believe that it's a great idea for you to have an open conversation with your doctor to ensure that you're following best practices for your body. Yeah. So, anything that you can take from what I've said, great. But your doctor and you know, what's best for you

Ric Shields (15:56):

In, in this process? Have you found foods that you have to completely avoid

Bryce Jennings (16:02):

Natural foods? Not as much. I do. Sometimes cheeses and dairy can affect me a little bit negatively, but if we're talking about just natural raw food in its purest form, no, I, I don't, none nothing of that do I avoid. Which is interesting because a lot of us believe that fruit is bad for you because it's sugar, but no fruit actually is full of fiber and antioxidants and so it should be consumed. So, no, I, again, I just try to avoid processed foods. I try to avoid sugars and fried foods. That's pretty much my main three things that I avoid.

Ric Shields (16:41):

You know, this is the DoorWays Ministry Network podcast where we attempt to encourage people in various expressions of ministry and leadership and influence. So how has your health journey impacted, or, or do you think it has, how has it impacted your ministry effectiveness or ministry opportunities?

Bryce Jennings (16:59):

I will say the first realization that I had of how this positively affected me was actually that first year back to Mexico when I had gone back. So again, I started to go to Mexico in 2005, and pretty much every year up until 2018, I tried to serve as effectively as I could, but I felt like I was kind of like a walking zombie. So that first year back, I was super excited to go because I stayed for two or three weeks. And I'm telling you, Rick, I woke up at six o'clock in the morning whenever we had to go down to breakfast. Right? Right. And until we would go to bed at 10 o'clock at night, I felt like I was fully present, and I was able to do every task that was in front of me, which was a huge deal. And so going forward from that I feel like just have the ability to be present in every scenario. I'm not looking for my next meal. I'm not looking for my next nap, but I'm able to clearly and effectively do whatever ministry that's in front of me that God has me do. And so, I think that is important for us as Christians in general, to be able to be present and to have the energy and awareness to listen to what God is telling you. If you're tired and your brain is foggy, it, it might be kind of hard for you to hear from God.

Ric Shields (18:19):

Rice, I want to ask you if we can come back next week, maybe get, talk about some of the specifics about your journey, see if we can help people with those. I think that'd be helpful. I know that weight loss is the most visible change we see, but I know that your health has changed too, just by what you've been telling us. And I just wonder if you have any special words of encouragement you'd like to share with listeners as it relates to their health journey. And finally, would you pray for those who are trying to find that right path forward?

Bryce Jennings (18:47):

Yes, sure. You know, I go back to that scripture that, and I know that there's a lot of ways that we interpret this, but that your body is a temple. There's also an old saying that I've heard for many years that nothing feels as good, or nothing tastes as good as feeling healthy feels. But in saying that, yes, our body is a temple. And so, to bring this roundabout, God has given us one body for us to be stewards of. When we take care of that, I believe that we are honoring him. We're glorifying. God. God, I thank you for this time that I've had with Rick and Doorway's ministry. And God, I thank you for this revelation that you've given me over the past six years. And I thank you that I have this ability and this platform to be able to share with fellow ministers and fellow Christians that, that once you better themselves as well. And Lord, I pray that as we continue on, that you would give us the clarity and that you would continue to help us to navigate how to properly take care of this temple that you had given us. Amen.

Ric Shields (19:54):

I'd like to say thanks again for listening, and I hope you found this podcast to be helpful for you, for a friend, or for someone you love. Please feel free to share it with others. If you'd like for someone to pray for you, drop me a note at info at DoorWays dot cc. I'll pray for you, and I'll share your note with others who will pray and believe for God to work on your behalf. Until next time, I hope you'll sense the presence of the Father, the love of Jesus, and the grace of the Holy Spirit in your heart, your home, and in your spheres of relationship and influence in the days ahead. Amen.