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** Quote From Kathleen ** Keep thinking about letting your body talk to you. **********************************************************************
** Testimonial of the Week ** This has been a big week of change at my house. My oldest daughter is on her way to Orlando, Florida, to work for Disney. Emotions have ranged from very excited to a bit nervous and fearful. On top of getting ready to go, she was also in her first car accident...she was bumped from behind. All were safe and the car was safe. But what I loved about this whole story was how we all handled it. She called me as they were waiting for the police to come...I didn't fall apart, she didn't fall apart, her sister didn't fall apart. And, my daughter said...'as far as having accidents go, this was a great first experience.' Three cars were involved, and everyone was incredibly helpful. The people driving by were helpful. The police and ambulance staff were all cheerful and helpful. We were all thankful this happened after a good lunch, and I did wonder...what would this look like if we weren't all doing the program? So, back to Disney. The day she left, we all prayed, hugged, cried a bit, and sent her on her way. She's driving there with her dad, so we're still waiting for the *first day*. Letting go in recovery hurts, but it is also very beautiful. If I weren't in recovery I would be stuffing and numbing my emotions with sugar. I wouldn't have been as present for her. I definitely am excited for her and proud of her...she is following one of her heart dreams. I feel able to encourage her and be strong for her and for myself. Right now I am excited to hear about her first day, I am dreaming of wonderful roommates for her, and wondering what fun adventures she will have. I know, if she is anything like me, the first few weeks will have their own challenges, but I feel we are all as prepared as we can be, and will take things as they come. Again, I thought...what would this look like if we weren't doing the program? Colette **********************************************************************
** Radiant Ambassadors ** Each day more and more articles about sugar addiction and its solution are appearing on the internet. I discovered a great little article on the science of addiction recently. I thought I would share it here as not only does it quote Kathleen's work but it also mentions the Sugar Addicts Total Recovery Program too! www.tnonline.com/node/58123 If you come across anything that mentions Kathleen or her books, please mention it on the forum or come on over to the ambassadors list where we're compiling a list of articles and contacts which could be very useful in the future! Selena Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Kitchen ** Colette called them yam cakes, but someone else dubbed them yum cakes, and the name stuck! You're reading my mind, Karen, as I'd just been thinking about them. They really are good cold or hot, so a nice lunchbox addition! I understand that, at Ranch, several people brought them in, and they had a wide variety - some were thin, some thick, there was different seasoning, and they were all good. A nice forgiving recipe. What Colette says is: "Anyway, here's the recipe. I was just playing around with this, so I do apologize for not having specific amounts. I guess one of these times I should actually measure. It has become quite a favorite at our house. Cook up your sweet potatoes (yams are so much easier to say, but we don't get true yams), and mush them up. Add some oil (I use coconut oil), and about the same amount of rolled oats as you have of yams. I'll use a cup of yams as an example. So you take your cup of yams, cup of oats, blurp of oil, and about 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, shredded coconut, and mix them all together. You want it to hold together, and be nice and sticky, so add water if you need to. I then use a scoop, and make little mounds, but flatten them with a fork. Bake at 400* for about 15 to 20 minutes. I freeze these, and take them out as needed...they are yummy cold and yummy hot, and they don't crumble, and don't get mushy, and travel well! Using peanut butter instead of the oil is yummy. And I bet you could experiment and use different spices...for variety. Enjoy! Colette, I've used olive oil, though I'd like to try the peanut butter. And I've used pumpkin pie spice, instead of cinnamon and ginger. Anne For more great program-friendly recipes, check out these great cookbooks in the store.
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** 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 ** A lot of new people have come over to radiantparents and are talking about how to do new behaviors with their kids. We are talking not just about food, but about new patterns of recovery in your family. If you are looking for great support for toddlers to teens, come join us. The problem solving is such a comfort and I love seeing the more experienced parents give so much help to new people. **********************************************************************
**NON-EMERGENCY ALARM? OR REAL? ** Patti Holden
The other night I had a smoke alarm going off in my home. It was piercing and annoying, LOL. So we get up, and check for fire, nope, and shut them off. Two hours later they go off again. Now I am angry, I want to sleep, they are interrupting me, so we push the *hush* button and go to sleep again. Now it’s morning and my smoke alarm goes off again! At this point I’d really like to rip them off the ceiling, LOL, but instead I call the local non-emergency fire department number and they say they can come out and check them. I make note to tell them it is NOT an emergency, they say that’s fine, and they will send them out. Rrrrrrrrr, Rrrrrrrrrr, Rrrrrrrrr, out comes a huge fire truck and a paramedic truck to our front door with alarms sounding! Yikes! I go out to greet the fireman at the front door and I say “I’m sorry; I told the woman that it was not an emergency.” But he replies with “Yes, I know ma’am, but when your smoke alarms are going off we have to treat it like one.” Whoa! Hit me like a ton of bricks (one of those Aha moments)! And I thought, how many times do we, in our programs, have smoke alarms going off and yet treat it as a non-emergency, or try to ignore them, or want to silence them by pushing the *hush* button? For instance, let’s say you are constantly late with breakfast; maybe just by a few minutes or just barely squeaking by within the hour. So not *that* late right? (SMOKE ALARM BELL RINGS) Do you think this is an emergency or a non-emergency? If something in our programs is ‘off’ is there a difference? Do we address it ‘as if’ it was important? Can it wait to be addressed until the next breakfast; or a week from then? Are we willing to take a look at it and figure out a solution, or do we think we can just ignore it? Will it go away on its own? Okay, so our breakfast is late, the alarm is sounding. What will you do? Maybe you will say “It’s no big deal” and push the *hush* button. Then the next time it is later, and later, and before you know it your whole program is falling apart and you have no idea why right? Hmmm, seems it might have been a better idea to address the first smoke alarm, the timing of breakfast, rather than wait or put it off. Here’s another scenario: There are empty spots in your journaling; didn’t write down the ‘justa’ you had the other day; didn’t write down that you ran 6 miles; missed a whole day of journaling this past week, etc. Well, no one is perfect yes? (SMOKE ALARM BELL RINGS) Do we address this as being important, or brush it off as not a big deal? What happens when 4 days later we are feeling grumpy, reactive, and tearful? Where will we look for clues? So then we don’t just have the one smoke alarm going off, we now have two (no journaling, shitty moods and no record of why) yes? Ok, so journal is sketchy, alarm is sounding, what will you do? Putting our fingers in our ears and going “lalalalala” so as to drown out the sound of the alarm doesn’t work too well. I know I tried it, LOL! So we stop in our tracks. We go take a look. We say “Whoa, where’s the fire”! “What happened”! “Let me go look”! And it may be as simple as placing the journal where it is more accessible, or getting a pen that actually has ink (Ah a visit to the Office Supply store, LOL). Another scenario might be: Your meal timing is off and you figure it’s not a huge thing. I mean who the heck eats meals by a clock right? (SMOKE ALARM BELL RINGS) So do we just continue sliding along with our meals, 6 hours apart, 7, 8? What happens when our blood sugar crashes and because we are ignoring meal timing, we then pop a sweet into our mouths outside of meals? Oh, and then our breakfast starts getting later too! Oh dear, now we have three smoke alarms sounding, yikes! We’re afraid maybe someone will tell us we’re doing it wrong. We want to do it right. And when we’re struggling it feels like a double whammy sometimes and the shame we feel for not ‘getting it right’ can prevent us from sharing on the lists. So we look at these things “as if” they were emergencies, because if our “smoke alarms” are going off, it needs to be treated as one. Who knows where a fire may be brewing! But truly no one has a perfect program, no matter what step we are on. We are all in the same boat sailing together on the wind of recovery. And our RR buds are available with open arms, the fire department buds come and say, “Let’s take a look and let’s work on this together”. No shame. Problem solving. We start planning, we tighten up our timing, we figure out why it was late in the first place and where we may need to make some changes. 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. |
