Hi {!firstname_fix}

This has been a quiet week of harvesting. I love that we have tomatoes in the local farmers market. I don't have a single one. Some dog, some dog that lives with me seems to think that green tomatoes are a delicacy that cannot be passed up. Hmph!

We are doing our leadership training and what a creative and exciting process that has been I think, having a chance to speak with people about the bigger picture of the community. I am sure you will hear more as we go. Next week, I will post some of the things we are learning so you can be a part of this as well.

For those of you who are overseas, we still have a few places left for Euroranch. We are also opening up some less expensive alternatives for lodging. Let me know if you are interested.


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.


These class will begin Wednesday, September 24, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page:

Using Radiant Resources (1 week) 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.

Brain Chemistry: Beta Endorphin (2 weeks) is one of our most popular classes. It will teach you the core of the science behind the program. This is the outline for a critical part of sugar sensitivity, why you act the way you do and what you can do to change it. I love this class and so do all the people who have taken it. Somehow BE rocks!

The Addiction Amoeba (2 weeks) is a way to take a look at some of the other issues that come up after you are detoxed. This a fun and joyful way to take the shame off and see how all these things are connected. This is an advanced class for step 6 and 7 people.


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 15, 2008
** Quote From Kathleen **


Once you have had a week of radiance, you will always return to it. Your molecules will remember and want it.

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** Testimonial for the Week**


So simple for me. I did what other people told me to do. I followed directions. Sometimes with grace and sometimes kicking and screaming. Sometimes quickly and sometimes realllly slowly but I followed the suggestions and or directions to find a new path.

Gail

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**Radiant Ambassadors**


Every so often I check through the Amazon.co.uk listing for Potatoes not Prozac. As of yesterday it was ranked number 3,307 in the bestseller list which is approx 16,000 places better than it was two months ago LOL!

Not only has the book got 10 glowing reviews (thanks everyone!) it's also got a Search Inside facility where you can read the first few pages and the index at the back. Excellent! I'm sure this will make it more appealing to people who can get a taste of what the book's about.

Selena

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!

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**Radiant Kitchen**


Remember I'm a Brit so brands will be different, LOL. Just have a look in the store!

Another stir fry I love is a mix of peanut butter about 1/4 cup with 1/2 cup dessicated/shredded coconut and a cup of water. Wizz the water with the peanut butter and shredded coconut and a tablespoon of soy sauce (I'll add that to anything, LOL) and mix into a stir fry for a lovely nutty taste! Great with beef and veggies.

Karen


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.


I want you to go through lesson #1 and see if you can see how this is different from other diets you have done.

I have tried NutriSystem – you buy their packaged food and add water. The food was awful, the first time I ever didn’t want to eat. No real education about which food choices were better for me. I could pick cheeseburgers and brownies. Dehydrated cheeseburgers? Yech. I lasted one week.

I tried Fit for Life. You eat only fruit for breakfast and do food combining – don’t mix carbs and protein at meals, only carb and veg or protein and veg. I quickly turned in to a hungry grumpy monster.

I tried Deal a Meal. Basically calorie restriction, but you spread your calories out through the day. This actually helped me lose a little weight, but didn’t address my addiction. Plus, it is a pain in the behind to carry around with you and track. I think I lasted three weeks on this one.

I tried the starving college student diet. No money for food, so I ate one or two packages of ramen noodles or a handful of animal crackers (these were very cheap to buy, when you only have $20-30 a month to buy food with). I ate one meal at 6:00 pm after classes and work and before my play rehearsal started. I starved myself pretty skinny but I was a strung out mess.

None of these programs could help me find out that I had an addiction (although the amount of alcohol I drank in college was a big clue). None of these programs showed me which foods would help me be healthy. They were all about being a size 3 or 5 or whatever size I thought I needed to be to feel accepted and feel good about myself. They were also about me trying to have some measure of control over my crazy mixed up life.

YLD shows me how to address my addiction. It shows me how to heal first and then when I’m stable and ready, to set a plan for weight loss that is healthy and appropriate for my lifestyle and my body. And I don’t have crushing PMS or horrific mood swings or clinical depression anymore. That is worth more to me than a few pounds on a scale. I do think that my current weight is not healthy, but I want to find a healthy weight for my body. The self-esteem issues are healed dramatically just by doing the food. This helps me to view weight loss from a stable perspective of healing first.

Laura

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.



I don't want to come off sounding like a commercial for the RR store, but the powders there really are "Da Bomb".

If you get George's Regular, all you need to add is milk/juice/fruit to taste. It has the protein, brown, and vitamins already in it so it is WAY convenient. It is soy protein and oats for the brown, so it is fine for a vegetarian.

If you order Restore, you need to be aware that it is just whey protein powder. But it is really great whey protein powder. It doesn't have any added junk in it and it tastes very good -- most whey protein powders either taste awful, or have loads of chemicals and/or sweeteners in them, or both! There was one brand that I liked before Kathleen came out with Restore and that was Whey To Go protein powder.

Nowadays I get Restore and add my own oats and vitamin powder, and mix it into chocolate almond milk. You can use it however you want, though. I think there are as many shake mix recipes out there as there are people eating shake for breakfast! When I first started eating breakfast, I liked to use cow's milk, thawed frozen strawberries, cottage cheese, and protein powder to get up to my required amount. I ate my brown on the side back then: a couple of slices of whole wheat toast, or some oatmeal, or something along those lines. I also had coffee with creamer, and often some juice or other "extras", but I always had my shake and my brown!

I hope this helps you to get some ideas.

Elaine

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**


In the RadiantDiabetes group, we talk about the different aspects of managing our diabetes while following the guidelines of the RR program. As you might imagine, it is a little more difficult to keep our BS levels in a good range than it is for people who don't have diabetes. We do this with humor and lots of sharing. I am very proud to be the liaison for this great group of people. If you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, or someone you love has them and you would like to get more information, as well as support and encouragement, please come join us.

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


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**The Values of Radiant Recovery®**
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.


I suspect that many of of you may not think about what is behind our community. Who are we? What are we about? This is way more than responding to a collection of books. Radiant Recovery® is a community, grown by a group of volunteer liaisons under my leadership. We meet every week. We talk, we sort things out, we work to continue to foster and grow the vision of a highly functional, creative healing place. Some of us have been working together for more than five years. It only gets better and better.

Here are the values we operate with:

  1. Commitment to the vision. We believe that the Radiant Recovery® program offers a life changing solution for the problem of sugar sensitivity and are willing to change our food, change our lives and share the vision with others.

  2. Simplicity. We will provide solutions to sugar sensitivity that are easy to understand and implement.

  3. Respect. We will recognize the individuality and unique differences of each person doing the program by reinforcing the unique, individually tailored aspect of the food plans.

  4. Listening. We will acknowledge that the most powerful definition of our success comes from those using the services and products we offer.

  5. Integrity. We deliver the promises we make. We say what we mean and we mean what we say.

  6. Compassion. We encourage self-awareness and empowerment in our community members by providing information in a non-judgmental way and remembering our own journeys.

  7. Empowerment. Rather than offering directions, we will provide tools that enable members to find the way out of chaos, feeling stuck and overwhelmed into a sense of clarity, focus and direction. We will work to teach rather than tell.

  8. Modeling. Our leadership will commit to living our values, working the program and being fully accountable for the quality of their own recovery. We will walk our talk.

  9. Responsibility. We will take responsibility for how we do business. We commit to being culturally and linguistically sensitive to the range of interests, concerns and backgrounds of our members.

One weekend I went to a trade show put on by the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. Five of our liaison team attended. They came to help, paid their own expenses, wore their sunflower Radiant Recovery® shirts and went around and talked to vendors, bookstore owners and buyers. I kept running into people who said *Oh, yes, one of your people was here*. No one could believe that this *staff* was there voluntarily because they care about the books and the message. The model we are creating is sort of outside the box.

At any rate, I am inviting you to participate and share in the development of this vision. If you have ideas and comments or thoughts or critique, email me. I will take your feedback, put it up on the web and we can all talk about it. get how this works, we can start making choices for healing.





©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