April 25, 2011

Hi {!firstname_fix}

I had an interesting reflection this week. Easter has always been a holy day in my world and I have thought about it a lot since I was very little. I watched the Mel Gibson movie on the crucifixion sometime during the week. It was pretty gory and grim and I can't say that it moved me. But it did make me pay attention to the process of the week. Saturday rolled in and I woke up thinking about how Jesus' followers must have felt. After all he had promised them he was that savior, they believed it. So all the events must have been very unsettling. Now he was dead, very dead, and they had no idea what was to come.

I think that Easter Saturday has something to offer us...when all of what we believed no longer works. The things we thought were going to happen or be may be gone, and we honestly do not know what is in store. How do we wait? Do we wait in despair? Or do we hold onto a belief, a promise that things are moving forward in a story that will heal?

I spent all day Saturday thinking about it. I am choosing hope. I am looking forward to the joy that will emerge and the possibility that I trust. I like living this way.

We have 2 slots left at Ranch. Email me if you want to check and see if you can slip in. Man, are we going to have a good time!

This class will begin Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:

Step 3 (2 weeks) is one of our core classes. This is a skill-based class. If you want to learn the baby steps of a successful step 3, come join us. This class is ALWAYS fun.

This class will begin Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:

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.

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

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** Quote From Kathleen **


Learning that you can have positive feelings from a thousand things other than food is a wonderful insight.

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** Testimonial of the Week **


I've waited a year to say this:

Thanks to Kathleen's fantastic programme which definitely had its part to play in my success, I have officially stopped smoking for one whole year. Yay!!!

He announces swinging his arms around while dancing and singing "were having a party."

Acting slightly over the top and feeling chuffed with him self (grin).

It's ok, silly moment over, I've calmed down now. :)

Have a good day
John

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** Radiant Ambassadors **


How did you hear about Radiant Recovery for the first time?

Were you one of the people who was in a library only to be surprised by a copy of Potatoes not Prozac falling from a shelf in front of you? Or did a friend lend you a copy of one of Kathleen's books and you were curious to learn more?

Write and let me know how you first discovered this wonderful world of healing and your story could be featured in the weekly newsletter being received by over 30,000 people worldwide!!

Selena
selenas@blueyonder.co.uk

Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news.

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** How I Found Radiant Recovery **


My name is Randy. I am a recovering alcoholic for 20 years in California. Want to feel better. I found Radiant Recovery through blogtalkradio.com. I am on step one, and am getting ready to order the journal because I had some trouble getting all the info into my calendar. Looking forward to letting go of sugar!!!

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** Radiant Recovery® Store **


David manages the Radiant Recovery® Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son.

Well, the Sprout Organic shake additions are a HIT!!! I gather you guys are loving them as much as Kathleen is. She LOVES that bean one. Says it really, really holds her all morning, especially on the days she goes to the gym.

For those of you traveling to ranch, remember, we will have a full retail set up for you to browse all the products. We will even ship things home for you. But if you have your eye of special things, go over and decide now. Let me know so I will make sure every thing is in stock and set for you.

Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better.

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** Happenings on Facebook **


Radiant Recovery® International | Promote Your Page Too


We have 2 places over on Facebook.

Radiant Recovery is hopping with FB conversations about getting started. If Facebook suits your style, come join us.

Radiant Recovery International is our official *page* where we send out regular announcements.

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** Radiant Kitchen **


Fried Eggplant with Yogurt-Garlic Dressing


One of the joys of having a Turkish husband is learning 101 ways to cook eggplant – it is practically the national vegetable of Turkey. I never had it growing up.

Eggplant is wonderful in texture and can quite often make a very convincing substitute for meat.

I’ll give you my favorite, and most simple – fried eggplant. The turkish way is to simply fry the eggplant in olive oil. But eggplant soaks up a lot of oil and it gets too oily for me. So I like to roast mine first and then fry it – soaks up less oil that way.

Eggplant

Slice the eggplant about 1" thick slices, either width wise, or length wise, whichever you prefer. Roast in the oven on 350 degrees fahrenheit until slightly golden in color and slightly tender. Then fry in olive oil. Top it with a yogurt/garlic dressing.

Yogurt/Garlic Dressing

Simply whip up plain yogurt until smooth, add crushed garlic and salt to taste.

This recipe was contributed by Susan S from the Radiant Recovery Community Forum.

For more great program-friendly recipes, check out our cookbook in the store.


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** Radiant Conversations **


Watch for the unveiling of the new and updated YLD program this next week. It is pretty exciting!

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!

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** Our Online Groups **


On the Radiant Fitness list we talk about how doing the food can support our fitness program and vice versa. Some favorite topics are what to eat when doing intensive exercise when all that's out there commercially are sugar-filled products. We also talk about what to eat before and after morning workouts, and what to do for those folks whose training program requires a twice-a-day workout. We just had a great thread on the necessity of sports drinks and how doing the food is better.

We have runners, walkers, bikers, dancers, aerobicizers, yogis, and many more types of exercise enthusiasts on the list. One of the neat things on the list is people who are recovering from exercise addiction who are learning how to work exercise back in their life in a healthy way. If any of this fits you, well, come on over and join in.

Or come to the group page to find the one that will best support your program: http://www.radiantrecovery.com/list_serves.htm


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**Entitlement and Blame **
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.



Many people ask me how they *know* that they are on step 7. Is it a date, hit detox, and then wham, there you are? Is it having a perfect program, every step clean and organized and sorted? How can someone on Step 7 muck around or be sloppy with the food journal? Do they have to revert? If they wobble, do they *lose* their status?

Now, what I am going to say here may surprise you. But step 7 is really about a state of being rather than a destination. Step 7 is affectionately called the *getting a life* step, but really, that hardly defines it. It is about how you meet the world and it is radically different from how the world was before you started the program. Let me walk you through the transformation.

I know from lots and lots of experience that the hallmarks of untreated sugar sensitivity are what I call entitlement and blame. We feel done unto. My husband, my boss, my mother, my children, my life, my stress, my health *made me.* You feel victimized by circumstance. It made you be this way. If he hadn't....I wouldn't be this way. You do not take responsibility for what happens around you because you do not feel empowered. You feel helpless in the face of things happening. And you blame the outside world for things not working.

At the same time, because you feel victimized you feel you are entitled to things. Well, I deserve to be...because..they owe me. Often this is the company owes me because I am poor and work hard and they make lots of money. I hear this as I deserve to not have to pay for the program because I am poor and am entitled to it for free.

These feelings, are biochemically induced. Now, that sounds pretty outrageous doesn't it? However, these are the very feelings that change with the program. Working with your journals helps you to see connections, and something called consequence. If I eat this, this happens. No one does it to me. There is a connection between what I do and what happens. You start making little connections..and over time they grow. As you get more steady, you can make more powerful connections.

Yes, my husband is abusive, but I stay here. Things like that. You start seeing yourselves as players rather than victims. And even more striking, when people critique you, you have this remarkable detachment. You take what is real, own it and are even grateful for the feedback rather than being devastated by it. For example, early in the program, if I offer a suggestion, not even a critique, but a simple reflection that perhaps eating a potato the size of a football might not be the best option, the person who started the program 3 days ago is either crushed or outraged that I do not understand their special situation and they go off in a huff or unsubscribe from the program for a year. If I say that to a person in balance, they say *Oh my, whatever was I thinking about. Thank you.*

I listen for this change. Sometimes it comes early. But most often it is the change that tells me most about Step 7 consciousness. One of my leadership people makes a mistake. We have a code for mistakes called the FANTASTIC! Code. They say, *Oh fantastic, let me go clean that one up.* We laugh and it is no bigger than an error to be corrected. Or someone wobbles, and I say, *Hey, how about a sabbatical while you steady up there?* And they say...*yah, yah, let me go catch my breath and tighten up my plan. My timing is off, I am eating out too much.* And they do. Now let me tell you, working and playing with people in this energy is beyond comparison.

You all feel it drifting through. Those of you on the more senior lists drink from the well. Those of you just starting know this is what you want. This is part of radiance, this humor, this joy, this resilience. It is way more than no longer yelling at your kids. It is getting a life. No more blame, lots of taking responsibility. No more entitlement, just humble willingness to work, show up and participate. Pretty nice from where I sit.


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.
Tina tells us what's happening on Facebook.


©2011 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/