Leaven Leaving

Seventy pounds. Progress.

My friend Janette is Jewish and we go to coffee sometimes, play chess, talk about various creative projects. You know, we're friends. She's Jewish and I am a pastor so religion often comes up and we have a go at it. In one conversation, we talked what leaven is: In Juda ism the term for unleavened bread is Matzah. Matzah is used to symbolize the restless flight from the exodus of Egypt. Since we could not stay in place during exodus to let our bread rise we eat Matzah to remember the plight of being homeless and wandering the desert. That is why no leavened bread is eaten during Passover. (This gets real strick with all types of food. The matzah must be baked within 18 minutes of the flour and water mixing or it is not considered unleavened.) She adds that the literal definition of Matzah is "unleavened bread." Matzah symbolizes purity and humility and a person not puffed up on egoism . I called this blog Leaven Leaving because this journey I am on is a process ...

This was a big week because after a long struggle to drop below an endless plateau, I dropped another two pounds! After the holidays I really lost some momentum and struggled in my mind about where I found myself. I kept knocking on the door, every week I hit the same low, but I could never dip below it. With a little help from my coach, we bust through! When we talked this morning, he shared with me how instructive this time will prove to be. Losing weight and getting healthy is not a linear journey. In the beginning, it was easy to shed the weight. But now the progress is slow and (dare I say it?) it has become work. The instructive part of this will become evident when I hit another rough patch. Needless to say, I don't ever want that to happen again but I understand that it may. Next time I will know how to respond better and I won't lose the battle of the mind.