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** Quote From Kathleen ** Make changes at a pace that works for you. Look for solid, long-term success, not dramatic, short-term results. **********************************************************************
** Testimonial of the Week ** Here are some things I do when I feel how you describe: Post in the community Call a friend or my sponsor Go to a meeting Write a gratitude list 'cause a grateful alcoholic won't use Make a really stable meal that ALWAYS grounds me - grilled salmon, brown rice and salad or greens veggies Go to bed early Look back in my journal to see if timing of meals got screwy And I HATED to hear this early on but it is true. When I am wobbly my food is off - every time! Around here we say don't drink, don't think and get to a meeting. Gail **********************************************************************
** Radiant Ambassadors ** Every so often we check out the Amazon sites to see how high Potatoes not Prozac is on the bestseller list. At the last time of looking on the UK site, it is ranked number 2,009 which is really pretty high! More interestingly, it is at number 4 in the depression category. This is fabulous news - it looks like word is getting out! If you'd like to join in the fun, come on over to join the Ambassadors list - we'd love to have you! Selena Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Kitchen ** Ice CreamSo I figured out a way to make some very yummy sugar-free iced cream recently. I bought a Cuisinart iced cream maker this summer--it's a newer type that doesn't require salt or hand cranking or anything. Basically you just freeze the inner bowl overnight, add your ingredients and turn it on for about 20 minutes. I've made two types now, coconut blueberry and coconut peach. The recipe is pretty simple. Take a cup or two of fruit, cook it down, add vanilla flavoring or a vanilla bean, puree it in the blender and put in the fridge to chill. When ready to make the iced cream, add two cans of coconut milk and the fruit :). It lasts a very long time since it's so rich. My hubby, who's not on the program, enjoys it. The iced cream does get hard after being in the freezer for a while, so I sometimes leave it out while having dinner so it's softer when I want to eat it. Really, it's best freshly made, but edible after, too. Heather For more great program-friendly recipes, check out these great cookbooks in the store.
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** Your Last Diet - More Than What You Think ** Well, our chats have deepened for sure. There were a lot of people this week. I think you all must be yearning for new ideas to spark your thinking. Or perhaps a stirring of the possibility of spring is waking up wanting to know more. It is very exciting to hear your sharing. I love it. If you are not a YLD member, come and join us. Click here if you are ready to change your life or just have some plain ol' fun! **********************************************************************
** Radiant Recovery® Store ** David manages the Radiant Recovery® Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son.  I am sorry that some of you are waiting on the shipment of George's® Original. Man, is it upsetting when I am told, shipping on the 25th, absolutely, no problem and then on the 25th, *Oh well, there is a problem with one of the ingredients.* I call every day. While you are waiting, can I send you some Restore®? Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
** Our Online Groups ** Come join us on the Recovery List. We are going to be looking at a whole new set of things - how to get sober, how to stay sober, how to enhance your sobriety and how to move the promises to a new level. I am going to be working with the group directly and I think it will be really fun. This actually will be the start of the exploration of some ideas for the new book on alcohol recovery. **********************************************************************
** The Power of Radiant Recovery ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
I know that some of you have been following the thread over on the forum about Radiant Recovery (RR) and Overeater Anonymous (OA). One of our readers asked about how they might work together. It was helpful for me to think through some of the issues. I thought you might enjoy reading this too. I was thinking it might be a good idea to offer some reflections about the strengths and differences in OA and RR. OA is patterned after AA, so it is based on the idea of setting down the problem [they define it as compulsive overeating] and learning a new life. OA says, *we learn that we are 'powerless over food' and that the spiritual awakening of turning our lives over to a power greater than us could heal us.* OA offers incredible fellowship and support. Its focus is on *abstinence*, or giving up sugar and white flour and creating an individual food plan that gets you there. Here is the difference. RR does not believe we are *powerless* over anything. There is a core difference in the baseline. RR is simply saying that some of us have different bodies. That chemistry sets us up to respond to some food differently. *Food* is not the issue. And we are not powerless over *food*. Food is good....And some foods set up a biochemical response that leads to compulsion and addiction. But *we* are not *powerless*. If we heal the imbalance that leads to the addiction, then we are able to make profound life changes. And personally, I have a major problem with the concept of *abstinence*...it is so negative and punitive. And if you *lose* abstinence, you have to start all over. How silly is that? Far better to approach healing as a process...you learn skills. You don't just stop sugar or compulsive eating. Stopping sugar is only a tiny part of healing. In RR we want you to heal. You learn to take tiny, nano steps so you succeed. You count your recovery based on your COMMITMENT to heal, and not on abstinence. Your struggles in RR become treasures to learn from. Your *relapse* becomes a teacher rather than a failure. Your *defects of character* are simply biochemically driven behaviors that just seem to get resolved as you do the food and learn to change behaviors. Now, I know this will sound silly, but I just had an awakening. The 7th step in OA says, *humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings....* I have read this for many years in AA, this morning I read it at the OA site and I thought...this is so different from RR. My perspective is that doing the food is not grace's job. It is mine, LOL. I work on the food, I learn to take responsibility. I learn how to communicate, to do anger differently, to do intimacy differently. That is not grace's job, it is mine. I think perhaps RR is less about spiritual conversion and more about practical ways to eat breakfast. To stop obsessing about SUGAR, including abstaining from it. And to start working with healing. What will I add today to make my life more full? How can I have shake on time? How can I laugh, not take myself so seriously? How can I stop being afraid or ashamed of my addiction and simply kiss it on its black nose and say, come on darling, time for a different way? Let's use those fabulous addictive skills on behalf of healing. Do I love the RR way? You bet I do. I love every part of it, every nuance, every scruffy little thing. It is informed by grace, by experience, by thousands of lives and by this deep knowing that addiction can be healed. And it is informed by those funny seven steps that work so well. Can you do both? Of course. But make sure you keep laughing. Laughter will heal you no matter what. Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together:
Gretel, our webmaster, puts it all together. David runs the Radiant Recovery® Store. Selena provides the weekly Ambassadors column. The banner photograph is by Patti Holden. ©2008 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, use this attribution: "By Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. of Radiant Recovery®", and notify kathleen@radiantrecovery.com of the location. Please visit the Radiant Recovery® website at http://www.radiantrecovery.com for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction. 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. |
