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July 5, 2010 Hi {!firstname_fix} I thought it would be fun to share a little slice of my heart this week. Gretel sent an email with this YouTube Clip. I just LOVED it....somehow it feels like what we do....we start singing recovery and the whole market comes to a standstill. At first the people are thinking, WHAT is going on here!! We keep singing, and something happens. The music fills the market, the music fills the people...and the faces, the faces of the people in the market made me cry. I am not sure why this touched me so much, but it sure did. This issue of the newsletter will bring you news of some pretty major changes that we will be doing over the next couple of weeks. Read carefully and ask questions. I am wanting all the introverts to have enough time to think about this and sort it. This class will begin Wednesday, July 7, 2010. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Step 2: Skillful Use (2 weeks) is the next level of journaling. This is for those of you who know *how* and want to learn what to do with your data. This class shows you how to interpret what you have written in an exciting and pragmatic way. This class will begin Wednesday, July 14, 2010. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Revitalizing Your Program (2 weeks) will present the most ground-breaking innovation we have had in 5 years. Just start your program and energize it in a way you cannot imagine. It does not matter if you are brand new on step 1, or a long timer on step 7, the tools are fabulous. I guarantee you this class will excite you and set your program on fire. The class schedule is online. Click here to see what is planned. Please wait to sign up for classes until a week or two before, and 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. 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. Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery website and Community Forum regularly. Warmly, Kathleen **********************************************************************
** Quote From Kathleen ** The cornerstone of your healing, your food journal is also the first step in creating a relationship with your body. **********************************************************************
** Testimonial of the Week ** 
Good work. You did fantastically well in the scenario, so perfectly described too! My in laws were just like that, very strung out about food and hyper alert to everyone else's quirks and greed as they saw it. They used to see it as a merit to just order a starter, or to share a main course when we went out - like 3 shrimp each. Sorry, I digress! For so long now nobody has remarked upon my food except to ask what I have brought today, or to get jealous at events, or be appreciative in receipt, until yesterday when my boss remarked on how long it took for me to eat lunch [as soon as I walked in the door as well!]. Later, when he called me up on the radio, presumably to check I was OK [I'd been out knocking on doors in a dodgy area], and I said I was eating dinner, he said, "eating again!?" So I said, "Oh yes, 6 hours since lunch, Sarge." He then observed, "You eat more than me," to which I replied,"I eat more than the rest of the team combined," and that was it. All in the very light tone I'm getting a lot of practice with. I really wasn't bothered though, and while I know family is different, and totally get wanting to support BIL with his smoothie, all we can do is our own thing in such circumstances. And I have had to say [only to one individual ever] that my food is not something I want to talk about right now! Well done you! Mel **********************************************************************
** Radiant Ambassadors ** 
Have you ever wondered where authors get their ideas from? Well, there’s a well-known website called Help A Reporter Out that carries all manner of requests for information from reporters and authors alike.Our very own Emily responded to a recent request from an author about how to encourage our kids to eat more veggies. She has been told that not only her story will be included in a book but also a mention of Little Sugar Addicts! Selena Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
** How I Found Radiant Recovery ** I found RR last summer during one of my dark periods. I can remember praying for help one night before bed and the thought came to me about the connection of sugar and depression. I immediately googled just that and Kathleen's website came up. After staying up for hours reading (and crying) I had the PnP book shipped from Amazon overnight. After reading and identifying with so much of the book, life happened and I put it up on the shelf until my big crash in January 2010. By the middle of February I "found" the book again and started Step 1. I'm now on Step 3 and this was my first Ranch. I'm so glad I chose to come so early on in my recovery program. After seeing so many Step 7 people I now have the hope and faith that I will be there too one day and that the whole RR program is the answer to my prayer. I am so very grateful. Already feeling a little radiant.... Patti V **********************************************************************
** Help Wanted ** Ok, hands up, who uses Facebook? Did you know that Radiant Recovery has not one but TWO Facebook groups? No? Well now you do! Our Group Page Our Fan Page We are looking at getting together a team of people who LOVE using Facebook and would love to chat with others and post on the Radiant Recovery Group Page. If you would love to join in the fun then please email me at selenas@blueyonder.co.uk Selena **********************************************************************
** Radiant Kitchen ** Well, I am going to have a houseful of people this weekend for the 4th of July celebration. Part of the attraction is that fireworks are still legal here in our neck of the woods, so folks from the Bay Area make the drive to the "country" for the backyard show. Our nieces are also coming for their now-annual stay for the summer, so my mind has been turning this morning to what I will feed the masses. Everything I make I can eat...none of them have stopped coming, lol. Most of them were here for my graduation party last month, and I even had some requests for food they ate to be present this weekend. This morning, I have been looking through recipes for ideas. This is what I do, because I really believe that most recipes can be adapted to fit the program and it also just gets the creative juices flowing. I have a few new "sides" that I am going to experiment on folks (they'll never know they were guinea pigs, lol), but I will probably stick with "stand-bys" for the main course. I am also searching for the recipe for dessert...why I think I hate cooking from recipes, because once I find something I like (and this one was a hit), I lose the recipe and then can't replicate it...maybe I should address my organizational skills. (smile) So, do any of you have plans, big or small, for this weekend? Any family favorites you'd like to share for when you have picnics or parties or gatherings? (I'm thinking of our "non-American" friends who aren't celebrating the 4th.) We are supposed to head to the lake for a picnic dinner on Friday, so I am having to think "portable" dinner, too, for that day. Actually...I love doing this kind of stuff, because it lets me expand my cooking base and to have fun! My family is pretty forgiving and will eat pretty much anything I put in front of them. I like meeting the challenge of bringing my cooking game to a new level among folks who don't normally "do the food". PE For more great program-friendly recipes, check out our cookbook in the store. **********************************************************************
** Your Last Diet - More Than What You Think ** I started the YLD online weight loss program back when we started the whole web site. The web development guys were really excited about setting up an affiliate program. At that point, I had no idea that it meant I do all the work, and they get all the profits, LOL. They said, "We will market for you and then give you half the money." They said weight loss is a hot topic and they would make me millions. Well, we KNOW weight loss is always a hot topic, LOL...as to the millions, well, well. It didn't happen. Their company went down in a dust storm of cocaine and I simply continued to provide the content. We just sort of did what we have always been doing...providing unflashy, solid, compassionate information to people who want to heal. Over the years I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of *special access*...like having a *mystery school* does not really suit my way of being in the world. We have talked about how to change this. We talked about changing chat from weight loss to discovery, but somehow it didn't happen. I think that was because we hadn't found the right alternative yet. As I wrote the article in today's newsletter, I realized that the time has come to dismantle YLD as it has been. If you want to learn weight loss, you will be able to do that just like any of the other special needs issues we respond to - like diabetes or recovery or depression or ED. You can simply join what will be called the Radiant Weight Loss list. You can take classes and you can speak about weight loss on the list. It will become an integrated part of what we do. I will go ahead and shift the chat function to a membership program called Conversations With Kathleen. We are going to rename the YLD list to to be the Conversations with Kathleen list. This will allow you to continue to have access to all the chat archives. You will be welcome to continue coming to chat. Essentially your YLD membership will roll over. This section in the newsletter will also be renamed Conversations with Kathleen. I will use it to update and nourish that membership program. Weight loss discussions will move to the radiant weight loss list. I hope this all makes sense. We can talk more on the weight loss list as we do the logistical transition. **********************************************************************
** 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 ** The RadiantStepOne 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 have had a lot of people join us this week. Do plan on coming over to the Step One list to talk with others about what you are learning. **********************************************************************
**Being Fat and All That ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
We have talked about being fat at many ranches. It is a theme that comes up over and over. This year was different and I want to talk to you all about what is happening. In 1998, when I published Potatoes Not Prozac, I had lost 60 pounds ten years before and had not gained it back. Back then, weight loss seemed pretty straightforward to me. Heal the addiction, do some refinements, some exercise and all is well. That was my experience. I wrote a book about it and started the YLD online weight loss program. Then something happened. I put on weight. It was pretty disconcerting. Here I was purporting to know about this stuff and I was gaining weight. Each book tour meant ten pounds. Menopause graced me. I wasn’t exercising as much because I was spending more time on the computer. It sort of snuck up on me…I thought my food was “good” but was not factoring in hormones and stress and change. On one level it made no sense to me. But I started on a quest. I learned more about insulin resistance. I went up to Wyoming and met with a Specialist MD about hormones, I learned a lot about thyroid. I learned about cortisol. And I was still fat. I noticed that many of us in leadership were still fat. So I added the emotional piece, I designed a weight loss in action piece. I thought this was all there was to the story. And so, of course, I thought it was “my” fault that I was not fixed. Something has changed…and I am going to share with you what I am learning. I think it is important for all of us. A few weeks ago, I was writing about the effects of stress on weight gain and weight loss. In the course of that writing, I reflected on the stressors we all live with. I had a thought about the biggest stressor being the reality of living in a fat body, of being a fat person. That idea really startled me. The biggest stressor is being fat. Now, as many of you know, I have worked with the issue of body image and cultural messages about being overweight for many years. I have written about it, I have talked about it, I have taught about it. I figured I had done that work. I had, on one level. The affirmations about ‘big is beautiful’ never grabbed me. Now, certainly, I know that the cultural myth we should be a size 0 is simply absurd. I know that the Hollywood standard of covert anorexia is not what I aspire to in any way. But the reality is that being fat is not fun. In fact, it is horrible. And mostly we deal with it by disassociation, the very thing that many of us are trying to heal. We disassociate and life gets functional, but something else is operating. Even as we leave our bodies as a way of coping, our bodies remain bathed by a constant torrent of negativity. Susan wrote a post about healing. In it she described the chatter that used to operate for her. I asked her if I could quote that here. My thoughts always went something like this: Trying out for cheerleading? Poor dear, she must not have gotten the memo. Does she not realize that she is fat? People will be laughing at her, she will never make the cut. Running for student government office? Poor girl. Does she not realize she is fat? People will laugh at her and she will never be elected. Trying out for softball? Poor girl, how can she not see? She is overweight. How could she possibly ever run the bases if she is ever lucky enough to hit a ball in the first place? How can she think of applying to work at a fitness place? How in the world....?When I read it, it socked me in the stomach. I realized that this entire flood surrounds every overweight person all the time. ALL THE TIME!, unceasingly from everyone and everywhere. Think of the energy it takes to protect ourselves from that bath of negativity and discounting. And even if we are alone, it never ceases, because we do it to ourselves.. Mind boggling, isn’t it? I personally stumbled on how this feels a few weeks ago in a planning conversation with our leadership team. I have worked a lot of sorting out, why some of us are still fat, why some are fatter? Are we doing something wrong? Are our promises false? Am I a fraud for suggesting I know how to lose weight? Whatever was going on? I happened to mention this in a conversation, and BAM! I was flooded with that entire litany Susan reported. For some reason, on that day, in that moment, I was in my body and the feelings came pounding in like a tidal wave. I literally could not talk. I could not speak about the feelings for several weeks. What had happened here? What did I just hit up against? It absolutely stopped me cold. Why now? Whatever was going on? I took some time to sort this through. The emotional healing classes had touched me deeply…as you all have been sorting the way to safety, and have connected with old pain, I have been doing the same. I hadn’t realized that my own fragments would float up as well. So the "being fat is horrible" piece popped up without warning and clobbered me. It is time for us to stop this madness. It is time to speak the truth about being fat… here is my own little manifesto to all those voices, all that judgment.
So…as I have gotten clear on this…it no longer has the same charge or pain. I actually happen to now how to unzip the suit and change it out. I am changing access to our weight loss program. Anyone who wants to do it is invited to join us. I have written about the change in the YLD section of this newsletter. But even more important, I am going to offer my skill and expertise to help you in a very different way. In some ways it is going to seem very functional. This is NOT boot camp, but it is biased with the concept of you are not flawed, if you want something different, it is here and you don’t have to go on TV or pay thousands of dollars to get it. So the tone of this work will be, if you want it, come for it. Stop thrashing, and make a commitment. And I will openly give you every bit of information I have on how to make things different. 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. ©2010 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/ |
