Hi {!firstname_fix}

Well, end of summer. Such a wonderful time. I went to the farmer's market this morning around seven. There were 5 balloons in the sky and it was clear and cool. The market was overflowing with tomatoes and carrots and veggies of all sorts. I bought many tomatoes that smell like summer, I got bright, sassy carrots and bright yellow crooknecks that I ate for dinner. I love this time of year.

I have continued my *cleaning out* tasks. I am almost done. This afternoon my helper, Harold, did the back. We made a pile for the dump, and he had cleared weeds and stuff for several weeks. Now the yard feels like the house. All buffed up. I scrubbed today, tomorrow we will paint baseboards. It all feels so settled. I also set up my table, computer, printer and scanner with all my photos. My winter play task is to sort and collate pictures for a family history.

We are doing leadership training in a week or so. This is a first for us. We now have more than 50 men and women who give their time and skill in supporting you. We will do a little online seminar about goals and vision for the year. I think it will be really fun.


These classes will begin Wednesday, September 3, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page:

Step 1: The Art of Breakfast (1 week) 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.

Brain Chemistry: Serotonin (2 weeks) 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.

Looking at New Ways of Dressing (2 weeks) is one of those *special* classes I do every once in a while. This class is open to people who are steady. This means you have to be at least on step 3, and steady...in order to get into the class, I am going to ask you to write about how steady you are. (smile) And remember, I read all the lists, so no joshing. Historically this has been a YLD members only class, but I have decided to open it up for you.



This class will begin Wednesday, September 10, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page:

Resource Center Tour (1 week) is another one of our free walking tours through the website. This one takes you through the resource center. Explore all the nooks and crannies and discover things you did not know were there.


If you are on disability or low income (your household income is less that $1000 a month), you may take classes for free if you get certified. I have put the guidelines for certification on the class schedule page.


The class schedule is on line. Click here to see what is planned. Please do not sign up for classes that are not yet scheduled.

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

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September 1, 2008
** Quote From Kathleen **


Nothing is ever lost in your process. Every slip, every derailment is in your service.

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** Testimonial for the Week**


I am doing very well. I sort of came out of the shock of the fire around the 5 month anniversary and I had a bit of a hard time for a few weeks. Then I figured out I was experiencing "the flat" after the fire. Once I figured that out, it was okay and I just let it flow through. I think I am on the other side of that now and feeling a lot like my old self. I am pretty happy and contented for the most part these days.

We are counting the days until our home arrives. It is supposed to be delivered the week of September 15th. We hope to be able to be living in it by October 1st which will be our 20th wedding anniversary. I am actually getting pretty excited.

I am living at the trailer again right now. We keep changing places depending on what the circumstances dictate. We are not living together. We tried living together in the trailer but it did not work and we were not happy, so...we worked out another arrangement and it works great. Jim lives at the lake during the week so he can work, then we switch places on the weekends. At least that is the way it is supposed to work. The work started on the house a couple of weeks ago and Jim has really needed to be here, so the switch didn't happen. Then I came to the trailer last Thursday thinking it was only for two days and now I find out, it is for a longer time! I get to learn about being flexible....not my strong suit! LOL! But I feel like I can do anything now because the end of this transition is in sight.

I have been having a lot of fun with friends. I am almost finished with the personal property inventory. I am knitting dish cloths to give away to the people who lost their homes in the Iowa floods this spring. I am cooking and eating well, my program is solid and nourishing. I am enjoying my animals, the cats are so happy to be back home and outside, the llamas and sheep are back, and as always the dogs are happy to be where ever we are.

The foundation is poured, the block work is almost finished, and the plumber will start putting the heat tubing in this week. Then the well will be dug and the septic system put in and we will be ready for the house. It is becoming very real.

This morning I was walking in the woods and I came up to the most beautiful and perfect spider's web. It was glowing in the early morning autumn light and it was sparkling with dew. It just took my breath away and I stopped for a bit just to take in it's fragile beauty. I continued on my walk which is a bit of a loop and about 8 minutes later I came to the same spot. The light had changed and the web was invisible. I knew where it was but had to look close to find it. It was still there, just as perfect as when I had first seen it, but when the light shifted it was very hard to see. It felt like a metaphor about these last few months. The light is shifting and the sparkling beauty is becomming visible again.


Carol

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**Radiant Ambassadors**


I found this article really interesting.

http://childrenssleepproject.com/2008/08/25/children-sleep-what-they-eat/

It's about a woman who can't get her child to sleep and has just realised that it may be down to the sugar that she is giving him. She mentions Kathleen, Little Sugar Addicts, and gives links to the RR website and the book.

We'll get people talking about RR - one article at a time!

Selena

Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news.

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**Radiant Kitchen**


One of my very, very favorite breakfasts is one from the Radiant Recovery Cookbook. You might want to get it! It is the Easy Egg and Oat One Pan Breakfast. It is basically oats and eggs and milk and spices scrambled up together in a frying pan. I could eat this three times a day! It reminds me of eating apple crisp!

Easy Egg and Oat One-Pan Breakfast



Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk or yogurt
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1 small apple, diced
  • Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste


Process:

  1. Beat the eggs, stir in milk or yogurt. Add oats, apple, nutmeg and cinnamon.
  2. Cook like a pancake or scramble in oiled skillet.


Serves 1


Radiant Recovery
Cookbook

Naomi's Nutritious and
Delicious Cookbook
Sheila's
Kitchen Recipes


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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**

YLDonline is a membership program run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself.


You know, we are doing the Weight Loss in Action class. It is astounding to hear people who are steady, rock steady on the program just sort out the plan and do it. It is the BEST of weight loss. I just love it. Thank you so much.

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.
 


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**Radiant Recovery Store **

David manages the Radiant Recovery Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son.





This weekend, many newspapers are stuffed with ads for going back to school. We need office supplies, backpacks, containers, pens, paper. I figure it is just a great time to get your journals. Don't forget we have both the beautiful blue and the subtle all black.

The journal is such a tool. Just the right size. If you need to write more, add in some of the special Moleskine note books that are perfect to tuck behind. Enjoy the quotes and know that the style is actually designed to support you in journaling.

Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better.

 
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**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.

Or come to the group page to see all our groups. http://www.radiantrecovery.com/list_serves.htm


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**The Gift of a Different Way**
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.


I write a lot of articles for the newsletter. This one happens to be one of my personal favorites. I read it over and over and over. Many people come to Radiant Recovery saying they are already doing most of the steps and just need to add a potato. I often suggest they get a copy of the talk I did at ranch in 2007 about what else is embedded in the steps. That discussion goes through each step and outlines the biochemical changes encoded in each step. But there is another key issue – one I haven’t really talked about.

Structure antidotes blind lurching.

When we are in active addiction, it is as if we lose our center and we stop being grounded. We lurch from one thing to another. Maybe from diet to diet, job to job, person to person, place to place or interest to interest. We have 6 knitting and crafts projects going on. We present ourselves as creative and curious, liking to try new things. We collect little things like offices supplies or pens in case we need them. We lurch and resist being pinned down.

We might say that structure ties us down, thwarts our creativity. Structure seems dull and old fashioned. It seems routine and boring and who would want to do that. Nowhere in our brain have we thought of our behavior as lurching. We never really thought that a little of this and a little of that might be saying something about our sugar addiction.

Why is it that we dream big and stay small? Why is it that those spark of insight and knowing sputter and fade rather than bursting into our passionate flame?

My hunch is that we have avoided the gift of structure. We haven’t considered that structure, doing things in an intentional order might actually shape us. And it might change the lurching to intention. If you do this, you will get this result.

Now think about that. For so many years, we have worked how to forget the consequence of our actions. We forget that if we eat sugar, or skip meals we get cranky and unpleasant. We forget that we lose direction and we lurch. We forget a lot.

So when we have structure, we stop lurching and we do not lose direction. Even early on in the program, when we are still forgetting because of our biochemistry, the structure itself guides us. The steps, those funny steps led us into intention. They guide us with if you do this, you will change. If you do these steps, you will have a life you cannot imagine. Everything will shift. And it will shift in ways beyond anything you have considered.

Now, many of you may feel that this is simply talk. It is not. We now have enough people who are doing the steps for a long enough time that it is really, really clear that there is a developmental pattern that emerges very predictably over time. The promises we make happen.

The steps are bigger than the food. Don’t think of changing them. Do them, do them and get the miracle.



©Kathleen DesMaisons 2008.

Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together:

Gretel, our webmaster, puts it all together
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.

©2008 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 Geraint Smith