I am on my way to merry ole England for Euroranch. A few of us are going early to do a little sightseeing and all. I am truly excited. I love our community members across the pond and it is a joy to be able to spend time with them. There will be no classes the week of October 1, 2007. These classes will begin the week of October 8, 2007. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Brain Chemistry: Serotonin is the other of our most popular classes. It helps you make sense of why the potato works, why you have a problem in the winter and how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can play into this. If you munch in your mind, if you are depressed or edgy or feel sad, this is the class for you. What Else is Embedded in the Steps is a MUST for every person starting and working on the steps. Come take this class to learn how the PROCESS affects you. It is fun, it is eye opening and you will have a blast. If you want to get a particularly powerful impact, order the Ranch 2007 CD as well. It tracks along with the content of this class. Step 1: The Art of Breakfast is our foundation class to get you started. Learn all four parts of step 1 in a structured way. Learn how to progress through them with enjoyment. Let us support getting your program off to a fabulous start. The class schedule is on line. Click here to see what is planned. I have scheduled through February so you can plan ahead too. Please do not sign up for classes that are not yet scheduled, and wait until about two weeks before a class is scheduled to sign up for it. 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 and you do not have to be at your computer at any set time. It does not matter whether you are in the US, Europe, the Far East or Australia, you simply respond on your own time. And although I advertise that the classes are one or two weeks, sometimes we are a little flexible and they may run longer. 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 **********************************************************************
October 1, 2007 ** Quote From Kathleen **
Rather than responding to problems or roadblocks with tears, you will start anticipating and solving problems. *********************************************************************
** Testimonial for the Week**
Lisa, Step 7 Your post really moved me, because I could've written it myself not that long ago. When I started the program I was shy, insecure, unable to connect to people - I even felt uncomfortable around my true friends! I always felt alone even in a crowd, I saw signs everywhere that people didn't like me, and isolated myself so they wouldn't get a chance to push me out. I was also very anxious and had panic attacks. That was in March last year. I just got to step 7 and my life has changed in so many ways I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't lived it myself! I am calm, clear and confident. I love people and company, something I never thought I could do! I often feel that I fit in, and notice how people like me and appreciate my presence. My anxiety and panic attacks have disappeared. Does it sound too good to be true? It did to me too, but it's all real! My life isn't perfect in any way, but I've found a beautiful, peaceful happiness inside myself that helps me deal with things so much easier. So the answer is yes, yes, yes! I felt like you and it sure got better! ********************************************************************
This is one of my favorite marinated salads from my cookbook. Do not substitute the brown rice vinegar for any other vinegar since the slightly sweet taste of the brown rice vinegar gives just the right touch to this dish. EASY MARINATED BEAN SALAD
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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**
YLDonline is a membership program run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself. I continue to just be amazed at what is happening in YLD. As we have worked through the Obesity Myth Class, I am reminded why I started YLD, and why I continue it. There is so much wounding around weight and body. YLD gives us a way to heal it. And yah, we are losing weight and changing bodies, but in my book, it is the healing of all that pain that is the best of it. 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. ********************************************************* ***********
**Radiant Recovery Store **
David manages the Radiant Recovery Store. He is also Kathleen’s oldest son. 
The BIG truck arrived and SHAKE was here, finally! We worked really hard to get it out to you. If you want shake now, order it and I will send it right away. And this is true for those of you overseas as well! Thank you for your patience. The store .... well I wanted to share this. I live in England and realised I was about to run out of protein powder. So I ordered from 3 places on the same day thinking one would arrive shortly. Well, the George's Junior arrived the same day as the protein powder I ordered by phone from a UK store (5 days including a weekend) and the online order of protein powder from a UK site still hasn't arrived. Plus price wise - including shipping - it worked out to be comparable. A huge thumbs up to the store and David. Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. ********************************************************* ***********
**Our Online Groups**
The Radiantdepression group is all about support for the person who is depressed and trying to work Kathleen's 7-step program of recovery from sugar addiction. Many of us have struggled with severe depression for years without any hope of finding an end to it. But through doing the food we have found that hope returning and have found light where before there was only darkness. Some of us are taking anti-depressants while doing the food, so we talk about how the two are compatible and we also share about getting through the tough spots together, with support from each other. If you are feeling depressed please come join us. There is hope. ********************************************************************
**The Secret of Self-Esteem
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Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. Optimism and self-confidence result from our body chemistry, not our mental attitude. Sometimes we are ready to take on the world. Other times the bag lady sits at our feet clucking her disapproval of our lives. Enduring and consistent confidence is a thousand times better than those few moments stolen on the back of a sugar high. I have been fascinated with the beta-endorphin story for years. As you may recall from Potatoes Not Prozac, beta-endorphin is the brain chemical that enables us to tolerate pain. So when I first learned that sugar evokes beta-endorphin, it made perfect sense to me. Sugar as a pain-killer seemed to resonate with what my body already knew. But I hadn’t thought of sugar as an emotional pain-killer. Reading that first scientific article about sugar reducing 'isolation distress' knocked my socks off. When baby mice were given sugar, they didn’t cry as much when they were taken away from their mothers. This wasn’t about physical pain, this was a whole different story. I wanted to piece it together. We know that children of alcoholics have naturally lower levels of beta-endorphin. What does this mean in real life? Beta-endorphin cuts pain. Therefore, lower levels of beta-endorphin mean we feel pain more deeply. We may be more distressed by going to the dentist. We may hurt more if we get banged up in a backyard game of football. We may cry more at the movies. Because we naturally have less of the brain chemical that protects us from pain, we are naturally more 'sensitive.' Because we are more sensitive, we feel more deeply. I suspect that lower levels of beta-endorphin make us more aware, more tuned in to the subtlety of what we are experiencing, and perhaps more vulnerable emotionally. Beta-endorphin also affects self-esteem. Confidence, optimism, a sense of connection, and a sense of elation all come with high levels of beta-endorphin. The euphoria of the 'runner’s high' is very real. That sense of being on top of the world is a byproduct of the beta-endorphin flood. By the same token, low beta-endorphin can have a profoundly negative effect on our feelings. Self-esteem eludes us — even though it seems we should feel terrific, we don’t. We are successful, we have enough money, we have love and support in our lives — but inside we are convinced it all will soon disappear and we will end up as a bag lady. We feel disconnected from those around us. Even though our mind tells us that we have a loving partner, an attentive husband, devoted children, caring parents, or loving friends, we still feel isolated and alone. Sometimes we shake our heads in disbelief. 'How can this be?' we ask. It makes no sense. What is even stranger is that we don’t feel this way all of the time. Sometimes we are ready to take on the world. Other times the bag lady sits at our feet clucking her disapproval of our lives. Having our confidence and self-esteem be so elusive, so unpredictable can be crazy-making. It makes no sense until we begin to see our life through the filter of beta-endorphin. When we have naturally low levels of beta-endorphin, our brains try to compensate by increasing the number of beta-endorphin receptors in order to catch as much beta-endorphin as possible. If something (like drugs, alcohol, or a large helping of sugary food) causes a big hit of beta-endorphin (also called a spike), the extra receptor sites will grab it and cause us to have a 'WOW!' reaction, a 'rush.' Let’s focus on the sugar effect. We start out with low beta-endorphin, we eat sugar, our beta-endorphin spikes, and we feel really good. We are confident, hopeful, and excited about our lives. We banish the bag lady with a flash of the hand and pronounce our enthusiasm for life and its demands. We feel great! For a little while. But then, in the middle of a conversation, at a board meeting, or on a date, our sense of possibility slips away. Doom descends and we are back to square one. The flood of beta-endorphin has receded and we are left with all those extra receptors sitting empty, forlorn — and craving for more. So how do we handle this situation? Can we raise our beta-endorphin levels by doing healthy things instead of using sugar and drugs? And what’s wrong with that 'rush?' If our beta-endorphin is low, don’t we want to do things that get us more? Here’s the key: We don’t want the rush because when it recedes, we end up feeling terrible. Instead we want a steady stream of beta-endorphin, which keeps us in a steady state of optimism, higher self-esteem, confidence, and connectedness. We want to enhance the natural production of beta-endorphin without the dramatic up and downs that have been a big part of our lives. In some ways, this may be hard to get used to. We may not want to give up the rush that sugar evokes. To use my own words from early recovery, life without the rush may seem 'boring.' It was almost as if I was willing to endure the pain of the down side in order to have the thrill of the up side. This, in a nutshell, is the seduction of addiction. We forget the down side and only remember those few moments of glory. We will seek forever and endure anything to return to the state of WOW! Trust me on this one, though. Many years later, my body, my mind, and my heart all know that a steady state of clarity and self-esteem is so much better than the illusion I carried around so long. Enduring and consistent confidence is a thousand times better than those few moments stolen on the back of a sugar high. I didn’t know this until I did the food plan — and kept doing it over time. But I do now, and there is nothing better in the world than living from this place. ©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 |