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October 25, 2010 Hi {!firstname_fix} This morning I heard the Sandhill Cranes for the first time. They are on their way to the Bosque Del Apache. It means Fall is soon here. So I have started cooking warm foods. Yesterday I made a quiche and some spaghetti sauce. I loved how it smelled in the kitchen! I love this time of year. These classes will begin Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page: Radiant Store Tour (2 weeks) 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. You will learn about all the products we carry and why I have chosen them for you. This is your chance to shape how the store works and to get all your questions answered. Radiant Step 2 - Introduction (2 weeks) will teach you the basics of journaling. The class will give you step-by-step instructions in how to record your food and feelings in a way that gets you excited. These classes will begin Wednesday, November 3, 2010. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page: Radiant Step 4 (2 weeks) is the potato class. Come learn everything you ever wanted to know about the timing, size, frequency of your potato. Learn about the best vitamins and talk all you want about them. This is a nice way to strengthen and refine your step 4. Radiant Step 7 (2 weeks) is a class for folks who have been on step 6 for more than a few months. This class will help you understand the art of step 7 - what it is and how it works. Step 7 is generally confusing at first. It seems as if it is the goal, but really it is the door to life in recovery. It is a very exciting place. Handling the Holidays - Thanksgiving (2 weeks) is a special class to help you prepare for the holidays in a centered and reflective way. We love this class. It is a great way to get out of being frantic and scattered. I always look forward to this class because I love Thanksgiving so much. I hope you will join us.  And this class will begin December 1, 2010. Radiant Play (2 weeks) - the material that came out of our discussions about the amygdala in chat. I learned that play has a huge impact on our ability to handle emotional change, and to make sense of the world. It was mind boggling to me. We will be talking about the neurochemistry of play. Why it is especially important for ss people and why even more so for those of us who have committed to recovery. I want to give you enough lead time to plan for this class. It is not to be missed. I know it sounds funny that we would need a *class* on play, but I think many of us are serious little adults by the time we are 4. We grow up in families where we are taking care of everything so we miss some crucial stuff. But this class is not about the psychology of play, rather the neurochemistry of it. So come take it for you, or if you are a parent or grandparent, for your children. You know I get excited when I design a new class. 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 ** Let's give up the idea of *perfection* and focus on fun and commitment. **********************************************************************
** Testimonial of the Week ** This afternoon I am cutting up little photos of childhood pets to put in a scrapbook for my sister. She is 40 in a couple of months, and I’m making a scrapbook for her as a gift. It’s my first venture into scrapbooking, part of my sporadic efforts to pull myself out of computer games and into more creative pastimes. Yesterday I thought of putting something with the words ‘Choose Life’ on the wall by my desk, so that I can see it every day. At first I was just going to print the words out and stick them on my pin-board. And then I thought, I could make a scrapbook page and put that on the wall right next to my monitor. Today that idea has grown into making a whole scrapbook full of the things I want in my life. And then I’m going to get a box frame, hang it on the wall by my desk and put a different page from my ‘Choose Life’ scrapbook in it every few weeks, so I don’t get accustomed to the view. I love this idea! Jenny **********************************************************************
** Radiant Ambassadors ** 
Do you want to talk to people about sugar sensitivity but aren't quite sure where to start?What exactly do you say to your child's teachers? Well, it's funny, we've been having this very same discussion on the ambassadors list! Kathleen has designed several eye-catching flyers that you can use to help talk about sugar sensitivity. If you would like to come over and have a look at them, you are more than welcome! Selena selenas@blueyonder.co.uk Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
** How I Found Radiant Recovery ** My name is Sheryl. I live in Henderson, NV. I started Step One about a month ago. So far so good. Saw a recommendation for P Not P in a book called Women's Bodies' Women's Wisdom. Looking forward to breaking the cycle of cravings & binges. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Recovery® Store ** David manages the Radiant Recovery® Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son. Howdy Radiant Recovery Store Shoppers, The holiday season is rapidly approaching and we wanted to give you a few tip on making your family visits as enjoyable as possible. Also note that we are introducing a new product just for this season.
Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
** Happenings on Facebook **   We've been sharing some delicious recipes with accompanying photos over on our Facebook page! In the last few days we've featured recipes for Parmesan Chicken Goujons with Thyme Tomatoes, Wheat Free Banana and Blueberry Muffins, and Gluten Free Yorkshire Puddings. The fun part is all the comments, discussion and suggestions that come afterward. Also - we've grown from 400 to over 500 likes in a week!!! How kewl is that! Come find us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/RadiantRecovery and join the fun!. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Kitchen ** 
Last week in chat there was a lot of talk about vegetables. It reminded me of this terrific recipe Alison had shared on Introduction to Radiant Cooking.
The stuffed zucchini boat was a huge success! My son, who doesn't like to eat
anything green especially if it has a funny name, went back for seconds. His
comment, "Mom, you should make this again."
For more great program-friendly recipes, check out our cookbook in the store. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Conversations ** Last week in chat I introduced the idea of starting a special topic study group for people who attend chat. This would be a place to really focus and expand the ideas we have been talking about. It will give the introverts time to reflect (smile) and will allow us to have some continuity and depth. I think what we all learned about the amygdala and how it shapes healing really go me interested in ways to continue these conversations. So, now you will get another benefit for the *diet* program, LOL. If you are not a YLD member, come and join us. Click here if you want to be a part of the latest and greatest or just have some plain ol' fun! **********************************************************************
** Our Online Groups ** 
We have converted the *budget* group into something with a slightly different slant. Radiant Abundant Program on Less will focus on the idea of doing more program with less. Diane and the team including Colette, Mel, Carol and Selena are excited to share with you about how they have learned to do this. If you are facing the holidays with constraints on your money or time or excitement, this will be a place to plug in.
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**Another Look at Learned Helplessness ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
When you get hurt as a child, you get a big beta-endorphin response to protect you. It literally kept you alive. And then as an adult you have intuitively found ways to recreate *safety* with sugar. Your body *remembers* that beta-endorphin means *safe* so you become very emotionally attached to your *comfort foods.* Sugar sensitive people are more attached to these foods, as we well know. And sugar sensitive people who have experienced childhood abuse are even more vulnerable. But here is what is even more intriguing. The body is flooded with beta-endorphin in the time of trauma or inescapable stress. These can be bad things happening like an accident, a death, a horrid boss, abusive situations or even traumatic stimuli like having your utilities turned off or your credit taken away. If you experienced the protection of the beta-endorphin flooding when you were little, these later adult experiences will recreate that powerful feeling of safety – even though on the outside it rationally seems as if these things are bad. You are drawn to them for the biochemical solace that comes with the release of beta endorphin. Learned Helplessness So even the things that seem like they are really *bad* are actually hooking into a very old biochemical pattern of beta-endorphin protection. And if bad things happen enough, you will feel (just as it did when you were little) like there is no way out. You will feel overwhelmed, inadequate and without options – this is learned helplessness. The most incredible thing is that these feelings are biochemical. They are beta-endorphin mediated. When you use sugars, you are comforted for a little. Life seems more possible, options seems bigger. But you can’t find your way out because the optimism and hopefulness only lasts for a little bit – while the sugar induced beta-endorphin lasts. Or goes away, and when you are in beta-endorphin withdrawal, the helplessness gets worse. A Way Out You stay in a downward spiral of hopelessness. The good news is that the Radiant Recovery#&174 plan can help you to get out of the destruction of learned helplessness. But in dealing with the bigger story, you have to make some adjustments. If you really want to be in the world in a new way, you will need to be very diligent about creating experiences to evoke the slow, healing beta-endorphin rather than the quick spikes that come from sugar. When you start getting better with the food, you reduce the priming from sugar. This is a good start. But unless you *add in* emotional experiences to recreate beta-endorphin (like EXERCISE, prayer, meditation, dancing, puppies, kittens, good sex (relational intimacy), good food, etc.), your body will be seeking, seeking something to re-activate the beta-endorphin *safety* which you connect to being okay. You will drift back to old patterns which mirror the trauma. So you will pick a fight with a cop ;-), your husband, partner or mother. You will *forget* to pay your bills on time, you will double book appointments, or not pay your taxes. This is NOT a function of being screwed up so much as an unconscious attempt to find solace and safety. Unless you reform the patterns, learned helplessness will follow you tenaciously. And you reform the brain patterns by changing the food. Take care of the food and the rest will take care of itself. 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. Emily shares a recipe. Tina tells us what's happening on Facebook. ©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/ |
