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** Quote From Kathleen ** What you thought would kill you can heal you. All the tenacity of your addiction can be in service to your recovery. And life will never be the same. **********************************************************************
** Testimonial of the Week ** The organic grocery store was great! I was really happy to find the Millet that I saw either in the RR store or in the newsletter lately. I couldn't find them where I live but found them here. I will try them when I get home. It was nice to browse and I can see that I would shop there regularly if I lived here. It was nice to spend the day with my friend. She is 100% supportive of what I do food wise. Today I saw the geneticist and cardiologist. They were both pleased, really pleased with my progress. The geneticist totally gets that it is about well being not my weight. He said I was doing everything I could to be pro active about my health and as far as he could see it was paying off. He looked at his new assistant and said, "You haven't seen a success story for (the connective tissue syndrome) yet have you?" I am thrilled to be that for her. A really cool side note: my husband has had two knee surgeries and is needing a partial knee replacement. The surgeon who had done them had gone out of the country for a year and wasn't traceable back in Canada. I was sitting in my geneticist's office and above his head on the wall was that surgeon's framed medical licence! Apparently he rents the geneticist's office part time to see patients! So now we know where he is! That was neat. For the first time ever the cardiologist did not harass me about my weight. The last time I saw her in April she told me rather sternly that I needed to lose another 30 pounds and 20 of that by the time I saw her next. Today she just asked how much I had lost in total since I first saw her 5 years ago. I had lost a little since I saw her in April but nowhere near what she wanted but she didn't even blink an eye about that. Instead she said that I was a different person physically and emotionally since that first appointment 5 years ago. She was thrilled with my progress and could not say enough positive things. So much so that I don't need to see her for 3 years as long as nothing changes. And the best was that she said the hole in my heart was so small that no surgery was required. She said my only limitations were no scuba diving and no high elevation climbing. :) Even my ECG was normal today and that wasn't the case in times past. I sat there and wondered if being on step 7 could change even that! She was concerned about the changes in my platelet counts and wants me to get good follow up on it. She is thinking rheumatoid arthritis or something autoimmune going on. Tonight I can accept whatever is, is. It will get sorted out. Another day I might feel upset about it but tonight I am just relieved about no surgery and for both doctors to be so supportive of the changes I've made and the benefits. Tomorrow I drive home. It's an 8 hour drive and I hope to be on the road early. I am looking forward to regular life again. No more road trips for medical reasons for 3 years!! This is the 4th 1500km round trip I've made in 5 months. I am ready to be a homebody. Cheryl **********************************************************************
** Radiant Ambassadors ** About a month ago I wrote to Hovis who are a bread manufacturer in the UK. They produce a particular wholewheat bread which is one of the best selling brands over here. I enquired why the third largest ingredient on one of their loaves was caramelised sugar. I couldn’t understand why this was included in a loaf that was supposedly healthy. Well, I received a reply from them! They told me that they only add the sugar to 'alleviate the bitterness' in their bread. Their technical team said that although some breads do not include sugar, sugars will be formed during baking, but these sugars are low. I've written to them again and will let you know if I hear any more! Selena Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Kitchen ** Southern Pulled PorkIngredients
I served them with taco fixings in Flour Tortillas (I used Spelt and brown rice flour) Ingredients:
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Cut in butter, then add water to make a soft, pliable dough. Knead briefly. Let sit for 15 minutes or so. Make the dough into golf ball sized balls, then roll out thin on a well floured board. Bake on a pretty hot skillet until slightly browned, then flip and bake the other side. This recipe was contributed by Kelli from the Radiant Recovery Community Forum. From La Leche League Whole Foods for the Whole Family Cookbook. 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 ** This week I want to speak of the joys of chat. Being able to connect with all of you all across the world is very, very exciting. I love having people from many miles being able to come together once a week and talk in real time. And no, you do not have to have a problem with weight in order to be able to come to chat. 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 have had some newly pregnant women ask me about which fish oil to get so I thought it would be good to say a little about the different oils we carry.
Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
** Our Online Groups ** Hi I'm Karen the liaison for the Radiant Step Three group. Like the name says, this group is all about our very favorite Step 3. This was a tough step for me when I started the program and it was definitely the hardest! I either forgot to eat meals, ate the most inappropriate sugar-laden stuff or just grazed my way through the day. It took me ages to master this step, but now I happily eat three meals a day. It's easy and very natural and I never dreamed I would ever say that in my lifetime! The Step 3 list is a great place to stop by for those who are finding this a challenging step, or who are starting out or who would just like some extra support. We talk a lot about things like: What is a meal, exactly? How do I get my body to cooperate with eating "just" three meals a day? What are some tips to help me with consistent timing? And all sorts of other aspects of this step. We try to make it fun, because... well why not make it fun?? Since being the liaison for this list, I've been thrilled to see so many people come through and "graduate" to the next steps! It's a great place of support... come and join us! (And it matters not if you are new to the step, totally re-doing the step or just shoring up your Step 3 after being further along in the program.) **********************************************************************
** Some Thoughts About Step 7 ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
A number of people have asked me how to do Step 7. They want to know what it is, what kind of magic comes on the day it arrives. Step 7 is different from the other steps. I don't think there is a moment so much as a process. Step 7 is about learning all the things that you 'forgot' while you were off using your drugs of choice sugar and white stuff. In alcoholism treatment, we know that getting sober is really just the beginning of treatment not the end. Here, Step 7 is not the end of the process but the beginning of the life phase. But it is different from the other steps because we don't tell you how, we support you in discovering what and how your discoveries work for you. You might find that exercise grounds you so you work on that first. You might see that taking omega three fatty acids such as fish or flax oil is in place because you put those in your shake. But maybe you do not know how to play and this scares you and sends you into a panic. Or perhaps you discover that you have no intimacy skills. Using sugar and white stuff kept you numb so you didn't have to deal with the fact that your husband uses porn as a way to cope or your girlfriend is an alcoholic. You may even feel that Step 7 is no fun and overwhelming. You may feel that you did all that work to 'arrive' and now this huge mountain of 'more' makes you feel totally overwhelmed. This is natural and is simply part of the process. But it is disorienting and our leadership team has been thinking about it a lot. Val suggested that part of the problem is that when our food is steady we simply live Step 7 and really don't talk about it much. So the people new to it don't have a role model to understand that doing the laundry without resentment is what Step 7 is about. Step 7 demands a different quality of doing the food. It means attention to timing, being meticulous and not obsessive. It means being consistent and attentive. And staying connected. Justas (that means sloppy food or sloppy timing) can creep into Step 7 really easily and then the joy of it turns back to resentment about all the 'work' again. At any rate, I thought you would enjoy the quick-start list I sent to the Step 7 list. And, also, you have gotten me so excited by this reflection, I think we should do a Step 7 class and have one of those great dialogues about it. The Baby Steps Through the Program Step One: breakfast with protein Within an hourStep Two: Journal Step Three: Three meals a day at regular intervals LunchStep Four: Vitamins and potato VitaminsStep Five: Browns Step Six: No sugars Step Seven: Get a life Water 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. ©2009 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. |
