I have been staying in the bay area of San Francisco waiting for little Pepper's (my dog) hormones to be ready to meet her new husband. If all goes well, we will have puppies in the summer. She of course is just bored that she cannot be out and about. I visited Nordstrom and got some new clothes, went to a favorite bookstore, and went to the farmer's market. It was just awesome!!! Wonderful, wonderful food...especially the little tiny potatoes. We will be starting these new classes the week of 4/23. Classes will begin on Monday this week. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Back to Basics 2 is the continuation of the regroup and get back on track class. Step 4: More Intriguing Than You Think is the potato class. Come learn everything you ever wanted to know about the timing, size, frequency of your potato. Learn about the best vitamins and talk all you want about them. This is a nice way to strengthen and refine your step 4. Using the Resources of the Community is for those of you who are brand new and would like to find your way around town. Come sit on the top of our double decker bus for a guided tour. And even if you are not brand new, this is a really fun class to reconnect with all the treats of the community There will be no classes the week of 5/2 because of Radiant Ranch. I have posted a new class schedule on line. Click here to see what is planned. A number of you have asked me how the classes work. Check the class list page for more information on this. The classes are done online with one lesson each day. You do not have to be at your computer at any set time. And please go read the questions and answers before you write to me. If you have trouble getting through the process, write the tech forum. Please feel free to pass this week's newsletter on to your friends and family. Don't forget to let me know what you like and would like to see me cover. Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery® website and Community Forum regularly. Warmly, Kathleen **********************************************************************
April 23, 2007 ** Quote From Kathleen **
As you keep your journal, you can discover that there is a direct correlation between what you are eating and how you are feeling. *********************************************************************
** Testimonial for the Week**
By Verla, Step 7, Liaison for Step 4 and Geo Coach for Canada When I discovered Radiant Recovery in 2001, I was searching the internet for more information about depression. As a therapist, I knew all of the traditional ways to treat depression and had been through them all, never finding the key for my own depression. At radiantrecovery.com I read everything Kathleen had written, then bought the books, and jumped into the program by posting on the forum. I never looked back and by the end of the first week I felt so much better I knew I was on the right track. I discovered a new facet to addiction, sugar addiction. It finally dawned on me how I could have been born into the midst of a family of alcoholics and not be one myself. I was, instead, a sugar addict, and just as seriously affected by it as any other drug addict by their drug. I learned that as a sugar addict not only did I compulsively eat sugar, but that I could not follow directions, respect authority, think clearly, share honestly, or trust others. After six months, I wouldn't have traded this program for all the gold in Fort Knox, because I had gained so much happiness and felt totally depression free. Although I still had much healing to do, I knew I had found a program that really worked for me. No more empty promises and shattered dreams of enjoying life. This program gave me everything I was searching for and so much more. In my continuing years on this program I believe that I grow more deeply to be the me I was created to be. I feel alive, connected, focused and serene. Physically, all of my aches and pains went away and I feel as healthy now as years ago in my forties. Life is good! ********************************************************************
I invented these muffins for the Passover holiday but they are perfect for anyone who is avoiding wheat or gluten. Several people have tried them and really like them so I thought I would share them with all of you, too. Banana Almond Muffins (Gluten-Free!)
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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**
YLDonline is a membership program run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself. I love what is happening with all of you. I keep hearing reports of weight loss.I think I heard the words *effortless* maybe 4 or 5 times. When you go through the process, follow instructions and do it, this is the miracle. It really is fun. If you are not a YLD member, come and join us. Click here if you are ready to change your life or just plain ole have fun. ********************************************************* ***********
**David's Corner **
David manages the Radiant Recovery Store. He is also Kathleen’s oldest son.  Here is a note that Karen sent from England. For those of you who live overseas, we can help. If you have any questions, just email me. My job is to make you happy.
Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. ********************************************************* ***********
**Our Online Groups**
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**Another Look at Learned Helplessness** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. When you get hurt as a child, you get a big beta-endorphin response to protect you. It literally kept you alive. And then as an adult you have intuitively found ways to recreate *safety* with sugar. Your body *remembers* that beta-endorphin means *safe* so you become very emotionally attached to your *comfort foods.* Sugar sensitive people are more attached to these foods, as we well know. And sugar sensitive people who have experienced childhood abuse are even more vulnerable. But here is what is even more intriguing. The body is flooded with beta-endorphin in the time of trauma or inescapable stress. These can be bad things happening like an accident, a death, a horrid boss, abusive situations or even traumatic stimuli like having your utilities turned off or your credit taken away. If you experienced the protection of the beta-endorphin flooding when you were little, these later adult experiences will recreate that powerful feeling of safety – even though on the outside it rationally seems as if these things are bad. You are drawn to them for the biochemical solace that comes with the release of beta endorphin. Learned Helplessness So even the things that seem like they are really *bad* are actually hooking into a very old biochemical pattern of beta-endorphin protection. And if bad things happen enough, you will feel (just as it did when you were little) like there is no way out. You will feel overwhelmed, inadequate and without options – this is learned helplessness. The most incredible thing is that these feelings are biochemical. They are beta-endorphin mediated. When you use sugars, you are comforted for a little. Life seems more possible, options seems bigger. But you can’t find your way out because the optimism and hopefulness only lasts for a little bit – while the sugar induced beta-endorphin lasts. Or goes away and when you are in beta-endorphin withdrawal, the helplessness gets worse. A Way Out You stay in a downward spiral of hopelessness. The good news is that the Radiant Recovery#&174 plan can help you to get out of the destruction of learned helplessness. But in dealing with the bigger story, you have to make some adjustments. If you really want to be in the world in a new way, you will need to be very diligent about creating experiences to evoke the slow, healing beta-endorphin rather than the quick spikes that come from sugar. When you start getting better with the food, you reduce the priming from sugar. This is a good start. But unless you *add in* emotional experiences to recreate beta-endorphin (like EXERCISE, prayer, meditation, dancing, puppies, kittens, good sex (relational intimacy), good food, etc.), your body will be seeking, seeking something to re-activate the beta-endorphin *safety* which you connect to being okay. You will drift back to old patterns which mirror the trauma. So you will pick a fight with a cop ;-), your husband, partner or mother. You will *forget* to pay your bills on time, you will double book appointments, or not pay your taxes. This is NOT a function of being screwed up so much as an unconscious attempt to find solace and safety. Unless you reform the patterns, learned helplessness will follow you tenaciously. And you reform the brain patterns by changing the food. Take care of the food and the rest will take care of itself ©Kathleen DesMaisons 2007. Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together: Gretel, the liaison for the recovery list and the webmaster, puts it all together Naomi gathers the recipes. David, who runs the Radiant Recovery® Store talks about what new products we have. You are getting the weekly newsletter from Radiant Recovery® in response to your signup. A copy of this newsletter may also be found posted on the web at http://www. radiantrecovery.com/weeklynewsletter.htm. ©2007 by Kathleen DesMaisons . All rights reserved. You are free to use or transmit this article to your ezine or website as long as you leave the content unaltered and use this attribution: "By Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. of Radiant Recovery®. Please visit Kathleen's website at http://www.radiantrecovery.com for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction." Please notify me at kathleen@radiantrecovery.com to let me know where the material will appear. Banner Photograph by Patti Holden, Step 7 |
