 Hi {!firstname_fix} I have started an interesting project. My mother died a little more than 10 years ago. I have her papers and photographs. I have made several passes over the years to clear out the *stuff* and keep the treasures. Yesterday, I sat down to really make sense of what is there. This is sort of like a 1000-piece jogsaw puzzle out on the table at the cottage by the sea. My mother kept a lot. There is the receipt from Macy's for the china set they bought in 1941 after they were married. There are the papers commissioning my father as an officer in the army. There are poems for when she was 7 and a letter she wrote on my behalf when I was in high school and had gotten in trouble. There are hundreds and hundreds of photos, all marked with dates and people. And hidden in there are all sorts of things about my father as well. That story is even more hidden. But glimpses and clues are there. I didn't know my mother so well. But as I put the pieces together, I know that two portraits will emerge. This is a remarkable journey. I set up the scanner, the printer and a little computer out there on the table. I will ask history to guide me. it is really quite lovely. Today I am going over to the state fair. I will look at the pigs and quilts and then go into the room with the guys with microphones on their heads chopping vegetables to learn new things. One year I found Quik Brite, the ONLY cleaner to ever clean grease from my tee-shirts. Another year I got an electric frying pan that I hocked my life for but it is THE best kitchen investment I ever made. Of course, there were the failed mops to clean anything, and the shoe cleaner that I never used, LOL. But it is a fall institution. I will pass through the food part, and eat a smoked ear of corn, but no funnel cake, spun sugar and that other fair stuff, LOL. I watched a show on the Discovery Channel about pigs and how intelligent they are. I don't know now about using them as a commodity to eat. I guess I am more drawn to Wilbur the pig in Charlotte's Web. You can see that I think of many things when I am not working. We will continue our classes. The schedule is light for this week because I am doing the first formal extra training with our leadership group. This is a fun way to go into the reflection of fall and winter. 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. These classes will begin Wednesday, September 17, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Step 3: Three Meals (1 week) is one of our core classes. This is a skilled based class. If you want to learn the baby steps of a successful step 3, come join us. This class is ALWAYS fun. Radiant Store Tour (1 week) is a free guided tour of the store. David will be leading this class so if you want to get to know the guy that makes it all work, come sign up. This is his first teaching experience, so you can show your support for the work he does to keep you happy. YLD: Weight Loss Readiness (2 weeks) is the getting started class for YLD members. We are really excited to do this new format. Come learn how Phase One of your program sets the foundation for your entire weight loss plan. 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 **********************************************************************
September 8, 2008 ** Quote From Kathleen **
When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. From The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff, Ernest H. Shepard (Illustrator). Viking Press, 1983. *********************************************************************
** Testimonial for the Week**
First of all, I love your posts, there is so much joy and happiness in them! I always have a smile on my face when I read them. I completely have this chasm you were talking about, and have gone through all manner of struggle and mind games. Here is what I have learned:
I believe in the end it is chemical and will heal with everything else over time. Glenn ********************************************************************
**Radiant Ambassadors** This week we have been sharing on the Ambassadors list about how best to talk to people we meet about Radiant Recovery. You can tell people that sugar affects the brain like a drug and that some peoples bodies are more sensitive to it than others. Then talk about the chocolate chip cookie test (smile). If they are smiling in recognition, you can tell them that you have this body too and that you read a book called Potatoes not Prozac which has really helped. Another good way is to share a bit of your own story, what it was like before and what you are like now. If you want to join in the fun, come and join the Radiant Ambassadors list - it's always great to have new people and new ideas! ********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen**
In our house, no one likes to think up menus! It's like we all can't remember what we like when it comes down to shopping for the next few days. Soooo... we just have lists that we keep on the fridge. One for protein we like, one for browns, and one for greens. Then we choose one from protein, one from brown, one from green. For instance, our protein list includes: salmon with our favorite rub, chicken breasts ditto, ground beef patties or loaves (mince to you, Kath!), chicken in little bits stir-fried, steak, other fish breaded and fried in butter. Browns might be baby red potatoes fried in butter, wild rice, beans, quinoa, oats as savory. Greens are broccoli, asparagus, green beans, "stir fry mix" fresh from our local grocer, tomatoes, nappa cabbage, onions. Then we look ahead the next 4-5 days and say... Friday - plenty of time to cook - bake chicken breasts, broccoli, make-ahead quinoa-veg salad Saturday - out and about - reheated chicken, quinoa-veg salad, green beans Sunday - burgers on the grill, asparagus and spuds ditto Monday - school day - salmon from the freezer, stir-fry veg including canned beans Then if someone has the rare suggestion for something new to make, we try it and if we like it, it goes on the list. Apparently we are all kind of plain cooks because we're so often blank at menu time and really need the ideas on our "favorites" list. connie
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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**
YLDonline is a membership program run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself. I loved last week's chat. We reviewed the developmental process of losing weight. It was pretty astounding to realize how consistent the changes are. It was wonderful to hear your voices. I am so proud of your insight, energy and thoughtfulness. Thank you! 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. 
  I am *back to school* as well. I was hired as the head coach for the high school girls volleyball team. We have started traveling already, so I have been thinking about what things the girls can easily have. I thought I would share that... George's Jr and Restore pair up for wonderful after school snacks. We are mixing Restore and some baby oatmeal in a baggy. The girls bring cartons of milk or juice, and put it in the shaker bottle. And you have a shake before practice. Does that make a competitive edge or what! You might also want to check out the flavorings again. We've added a new butterscotch flavor that is delicious. Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. ********************************************************* ***********
**Our Online Groups**
The RadiantBreakfast list is a great place to learn the nuances of breakfast, build a strong foundation for the rest of the Steps, and find how helpful it is to share our journey with others. It is great for new people and those who have been on the program a long time. Sharing helps everyone. The awesome thing is we all, Step 1 or Step 7, eat breakfast every single day. How cool is that? We'd love it for you to Sign Up: We love new members! ********************************************************************
**Looking Again At The C57 Story**
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. Some of the material we have put together is now a *classic*. this is one of my favorites. Science has a lot to learn about sugar sensitivity. We can't just go to PubMEd, put "sugar sensitivity" in the search field and find hundreds or thousands of citations telling us all about our unique bodies and behaviors. But the story is there in the science writings, encoded in unexpected places and in unexpected ways. If we listen and watch our own stories, we can go back to the literature and better understand the whys of what we are living. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my recent exploration. I continue to be intrigued by beta-endorphin and its relationship to the story of sugar sensitivity. I began my relationship with beta-endorphin when I learned two intriguing themes. The first came from the work of Dr. Christine Gianoulakis at McGill University. She noticed that two different strains of mice responded to the effects of alcohol in very different ways. The C57GL/6 mice had a far more potent reaction than their "dry" brothers and sisters, the DBA/2 mice. Because of this intensity of the response, they really go for the booze. C57s are called alcohol-preferring mice and DBAs are called alcohol-avoiding mice. As an aside, many other studies have shown that not only do the C57s have a high preference for alcohol, they also love sweet things. In fact, some scientists are working with the concept that a preference for sweet may be an indicator of a risk for alcoholism. Dr. Gianoulakis and her colleagues have worked with these mice for a long time. They discovered that the C57's and the DBA have very different levels of beta-endorphin. The C57's are born with much lower levels of beta endorphin in their brains, so their brains increase the number of receptor sites to try to catch more of the beta endorphin molecules. This is called upregulation. Because they have more places to catch the beta-endorphin, they get a bigger response to things that evoke beta-endorphin. Dr. Gianoulakis extended her study to people and examined a whole group of people who are known to be genetically predisposed to alcohol addiction, the children and grandchildren of alcoholics. Children and grandchildren of alcoholics seem to be the human equivalent of the C57 mice. They, like the mice, have lowered levels of beta-endorphin and a heightened response to things that evoke beta-endorphin like alcohol and sugars. As Dr. Gianoulakis was publishing her work, a number of other scientists were noticing that that sucrose quieted pain. They discovered that not only does sucrose quiet physical pain, but also it quiets the pain of loss or social isolation. When a group of baby chicks were taken from their mama, they peeped and peeped. When they were given sugar water, they stopped crying for mama chicken. Sugar as a Drug Dr. Elliott Blass, then at Cornell, wanted to understand how this happens. How could sugar act like a drug? He did some experiments and showed that sucrose cut physical and emotional pain by evoking the brain's own beta-endorphin. Beta-endorphin is the body's natural painkiller. It is called an endogenous opioid or internal painkiller. Morphine and heroine are opiate drugs, which mean they go and sit in the brain's beta-endorphin receptor sites and get the brain to block pain signals. Sucrose acts like an opioid drug such as morphine or heroin. Not as intensely, but on the same beta-endorphin system. And, if we return to our friends the C57 and the DBA mice, we discover that the C57s have a 35 times more powerful reaction to morphine than do the DBAs. Think of that. Insert sugar in the place of morphine, and we begin to see why some body and brain types seek it, love it and get addicted to it. Now the sugar story and the connection to C57's is well researched throughout the scientific literature. But no one in the science lab is yet making this leap from the C57 profile to the sugar sensitivity profile in people. But the "match" is extraordinary. How We Are Like Those C57 Mice If we start thinking of ourselves as little C57 mice, we can have LOTS of clues about why we act the way we do. And we can start understanding why our DBA friends cannot in any way understand why we keeping going back when they are able to just say no. As we continue this discussion, let's stop for a moment and take one cautionary note about our attitudes towards the different types of mice (or people). Scientists do not look down upon the little C57s. Nor do they laud the DBA. They simply know that they are two very distinct strains with different body chemistries. If they wish to look at the effect of a given intervention and want to see the differences in different body types, they order both kinds of mice. Getting Rid of the Negative Spin So, we can work on taking the negative judgment and shame off of the C57 way of life. Our first step is understanding. As we get how this works, we can start making choices for healing. And then TURN US LOOSE! Let me list some of the C57 "facts" I have found with my own research. I can then reflect with you on what it might mean for our healing.
Let's Apply the Science to Ourselves Let's translate these and play a little. Replace the word C57 with a sugar sensitive person and replace the word morphine with sugars. Let's go through the list again.
The Patterns Are Powerful Pretty interesting isn't it. For many years we have struggled with learned helplessness, with self-esteem that fades in a moment. We vacillate between hyperactive clarity and lying on the couch in a stupor. The Dr. Jeykll/Ms.Hyde syndrome is very close to home. Beyond Mood Swings But now, I am pushing us beyond the idea of mood swings. I am inviting you think of yourself as a big C57 and to connect with the enormity of what these mouse studies mean for us. Those things which we have considered "character flaws" for all this time are a function of your sugar sensitive biochemistry. Our alcohol, sugar, fat, white things literally get us mobilized, make us brave, funny, self confident for a little. But we only remember the feeling okay, feeling brave. It's why so many people who come to the forum lament that they cannot imagine giving up the sugar. It's the "only" thing that makes life worth living. This is addiction. This is being caught in a place that kills us. But we don't see it. The Power and the Disappointment of Beta Endorphin The beta-endorphin hit wears off and we crash. Then it's horrible. And we become more immobile, hopeless, demoralized, overwhelmed and tearful. But we do not make the connection to withdrawal. What we remember is that when we "use" we feel okay. And so we are willing to trade 30 minutes, then ten minutes, of feeling okay for the rest being horrible because we are so desperate to feel okay. We will do ANYTHING not to experience the horror of the withdrawal. Ironically, many sugar sensitive people are very intolerant of alcoholics and drug addicts. But alcoholism and drug addiction are only the more intense forms of what we ourselves experience - a life driven to feeling better, terror of the withdrawal, and a life centered around getting our "fix." Putting the Story Together And along comes the Potatoes Not Prozac food plan. Suddenly things start to make sense. The vague "knowing" we have had for a while (and we are intuitive people!) gets a name, It makes sense. We don't have to think of ourselves as hopeless, depressed and out of control. We are sugar sensitive. But Potatoes Not Prozac is only the beginning of the story. We create stability. We heal the brain. We take out the foods like sugar and white things that prime us. Sometimes this spooks us because when we take out the stuff that has made us feel "good" in the past, we enter an uneasy space. We feel better overall, but hardly confident. After all, our core brain is a C57, not a DBA. Raising Beta Endorphin Naturally This is the magic of all those things we affectionately refer to on the www.radiantrecovery.com forum as BE raising activities. Mozart, laughter, exercise, yoga, meditation, prayer, pups, babies, grandbabies, good sex, rollerblading, and great movies. What is not to like in the list? Do these things and create beta-endorphin. Slow and steady beta-endorphin. They wash us with feeling self-confident. And it grows on us. The more we feel it, the more we want to do these things. Many of us have been listening to the voices on the forum. We can see these patterns as our friends in the sugar sensitive community make changes with the food. The voices of our "newbies" are very different from the voices of the "old-timers." When our food wobbles, we wobble. We whine, we munch, we get cranky. We go into beta-endorphin crash. We retreat, we isolate, and we crouch, get defensive and withdraw. Beta-endorphin crash. Claiming Our Birthright And miracle of miracles, when the food is steady, we are steady. We are funny, compassionate, tolerate, patient, resourceful and willing to hang in there and find solutions. Same bodies, same brains, same biochemistry. But under the influence of a different way of eating. Balance brings our birthright home. ©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 |
