January 23, 2012

Hi {!firstname_fix}

Well, winter seems to be settling into many places. Here in NM, we are over the hump which is why I love living here. It's funny, but the air changes...just like one day in late August it will *feel* like Fall. The same happens with winter. We had one morning where it felt like a transition.

I have 2 new foster dogs...they were confiscated in a raid on a hoarder's and had never been out of a cage. When they arrived, they did not know what to do with dirt...now, they have mastered play and the other day were running around chest-bumping the other dogs, discovering long-hidden kongs, making mud with the overturned water dishes and leaping in the air when I came out into the yard. It looks chaotic out there because they are gnawing on the bushes, digging holes, making piles of toys and throwing wood chips everywhere. I figure they can do this for a while, LOL.

The other two really settled dogs just sit and watch them. The rowdy teenaged puppy shows them more naughty things. And I just laugh. They LOVE dinner and coats are getting shiny and muscles filling out as worms are treated and they do da food.

The getting ready for ranch class is progressing nicely. I notice they are talking about finding great airfares to Albuquerque. This made me realize that this is the best time of year to snag great bargains if you are planning to come to ranch. If you are not clear on what we do at ranch come over to the community forum and let's chat there.

These classes will begin Wednesday, January 25, 2012. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:

Using Radiant Resources (2 weeks) - is a free orientation for those of you who are brand new and would like to find your way around town. Come sit on the top of our double-decker bus for a guided tour. And even if you are not brand new, this is a really fun class to reconnect with all the treats of the community.

Step 4

 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.
Anxiety (2 weeks) - will deal with biochemistry of anxiety, panic and phobia and will discuss ways to heal using the steps and other behavioral modifications. Here is what it will include:
  1. Understanding what anxiety, panic and phobia are
  2. Learning the things that contribute to them
  3. Learning what *flooding* is and how it contributes to anxiety
  4. The quieting neurotransmitters and why they are important
  5. The brain parts of anxiety
  6. Learning how to quiet your brain (and anxiety)
  7. The key elements of the solution
This class will begin Wednesday, February 1, 2012. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:

Step 1

 Step 1 (2 weeks) - is our foundation class to get you started. Learn all four parts of step 1 in a structured way. Learn how to progress through them with enjoyment. Let us support getting your program off to a fabulous start.


The class schedule is online. Click here to see what is planned.

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 **


Doing the food will balance you, and you will know exactly what to do to heal yourself.

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** Testimonial of the Week **


I was tired all the time and joints aching and hopeless. I was, and am, fat (280lbs) . After 3 months and on Step 3, I have energy, hope, optimism and feelings of happiness I haven't experienced in a looong time. It is deceptively simple 'on paper,' but in action it is an extraordinary process and it is made all the more amazing by the great wealth of kindness and wisdom that people here have shared with me.

I am no longer bingeing. My eating has stabilised and I am feeling more stable than I have in ages. It *is* possible to do this, you will have so much help and support. It *isn't* a phoney fix.

Best wishes in your healing process,
Emma

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** Radiant Ambassadors **


I'm looking for some eagle-eyed helpers (smile). If you spot an article or hear of anything that is relevant to RR, could you let me know? It could be in a magazine, newspaper, on a noticeboard at work, on the news.

I am trying to find more and more opportunities to talk about RR and get it recognised and out there in the public space.

Thanks!

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 **


Here’s a Hurray for Your Last Diet. I don’t think I would ever have picked up Potatoes not Prozac (oh I hate to think I might never have found it!) But I didn’t eat potatoes, and I didn’t think of Prozac. I didn’t realise about my brain chemicals, I just thought if only I could lose two stones or so, perhaps everything else would settle down. I don’t think I have ever been depressed (I could do amazing anxiety though). But having got a bit desperate again re: the 1,001th Diet I was doing, I was seeking another solution. I was browsing through the internet one day and saw a picture of Your Last Diet. Aha, a diet book I had not got. This one may have my answer.

Well - how right I was. I was always hoping the next diet book would have my answer. This one actually DID. I was astonished with YLD because every word was about me.

Of course I had to throw myself at it at 100 miles an hour so I didn’t rest till I had SARP and PNP as well, and read them lots, and the forum, and the site, until I calmed down enough to get my breakfast right.

Mosaic

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** Radiant Recovery® Store **


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

We have had a lot of new people come into the program this month, so I thought it would be good to remind you of one of our best resources which presents the Theory and Practice of Radiant Recovery®



The Audio Learning Course Features


Disc One
An Introduction to Sugar Sensitivity

o Introduction o The Vision Quest
o Blood Sugar o The Process of the Steps
o Brain Chemistry o Step One
o Serotonin o Step Two
o Beta Endorphin  


Disc Two
The Steps

o Step Three o Step Six, Early
o Step Four o Step Six, The Flat
o Step Five o Step Seven


Disc Three
What Else is Embedded in the Steps

o Step One o Step Five
o Step Two o Step Six
o Step Three o Step Seven
o Step Four  


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

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** Radiant Kitchen **

Scottish Oatcakes

Fiona from the Brits list shared them with us at EuroRanch and they are divine. She cut them in heart shapes and it made me feel like I was eating a valentine's treat! These are REAL Scottish oatcakes!
  • 7 oz (200g or 1 3/4 cups) oatmeal
  • 3 oz (75g or 3/4 cup) oat flour (made by whizzing oatmeal in the blender)
  • 1 (5ml) teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 oz (50g or 1/4 cup) butter
  • 2-3 tablespoons (30-45ml) boiling water
Preheat oven to 190 C /375 F/gas mark 5 and lightly oil two baking sheets. Mix dry ingredients. Melt butter (or oil). Gradually add enough boiling water to make a soft but not sticky dough. Turn out onto lightly-floured surface and knead until dough is firm enough to roll out. You can cut shapes or cut into squares.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins until golden brown.

You can add 3-4 oz (100g) of pecans or try cheese, peanut butter...... I'm sure you can think of other variations.

For more great program-friendly recipes, check out our cookbook in the store and visit our online Radiant Recipes site.


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** Radiant YLD **


Our bookstudy is going really well. It is so much fun to be doing this together. Bring your book to chat having read pages 12-13. We will be discussing the brain chemistry chart and how that matrix can be so helpful in our healing.

If you would like to join, come find us here

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** Radiant Conversations **


We have a new portal for the Conversations program. Come check it out here.

We will be talking about the difference between BE hunger and Stomach hunger. I think this is a great topic and should be really fun.

If you would like to join us, you can do that below.

Join YLD Weight Loss Now: click here - $99

Join Conversations 2011 Now: click here - $99

Join Both YLD and Conversations Now: click here - $149

Current YLD members wish to Upgrade to Both, click here - $49

Current YLD members who wish to Transfer to Conversations 2011 Only can do so for a $14.99 admin fee: click here

If you are not a member, come and join us 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 **


The Radiantdepression group is all about support for the person who is depressed and trying to work Kathleen's 7-step program of recovery from sugar addiction. Many of us have struggled with severe depression for years without any hope of finding an end to it. But through doing the food we have found that hope returning and have found light where before there was only darkness.

Some of us are taking anti-depressants while doing the food, so we talk about how the two are compatible and we also share about getting through the tough spots together, with support from each other. If you are feeling depressed please come join us. There is hope.

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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**BE Hunger **
Martha Carnahan



I have something to share on this topic, something I learned from Kathleen at ranch several years ago, and it has helped me immensely with cravings.

It has to do with two kinds of hunger: BE hunger and Real hunger.

BE Hunger = you have that sort of itch, a hunger for something, you don't necessarily know what, but you know that food has cured this feeling in the past. You eat, and immediately feel better. BE Hunger happens when our beta endorphin receptor sites (which are all over our body, inside and out) are open, empty and screaming. When we eat, especially sugar or something that gives a nice BE hit, the chemistry flows pretty quickly and those screaming BE sites are happy and content and quiet down (for a while, until they starve again and start all over!)

Real Hunger = it's a similar feeling, but also might have an empty stomach feeling, or a feeling like the growlies inside. When we eat, we still feel not-so-great for a bit -- it takes about 10-15 or so minutes for the food to make our empty stomachs feel okay when we have true hunger.

With real hunger, only food will satisfy it.

With BE hunger, we have a lot of options. True, food/sugar will satisfy it. But so will a nice gentle BE raiser like taking a walk, picking up the phone and calling a good friend who will make you laugh, snuggling with puppies and kittens, getting a massage, etc. (ooooh, can't forget my fave, a nice relaxing soak in a hot tub!)

Those BE-raising activities satisfy those empty screaming BE receptors just as the sugar does, only in a more gentle way so that it's not some big hit, and there is less of a big crash afterward.

When I stay mindful of this, it's enormously helpful. If I have a craving or itchy feeling between meals, I can check in and see if I am having BE hunger or real hunger. Hint: BE hunger is more of a heart hunger. Real hunger is stomach hunger.

If it's stomach hunger, I check my journal and see if maybe I just didn't have enough at the last meal. Or maybe I've been doing some strenuous physical activity that is out of the norm for me... I check in and figure that out.

If it's stomach hunger, I have a protein/slow carb snack.

If it's BE hunger, I do one of my BE raising activities. Even if I'm working or in some awkward situation, there is almost always something I can do! Even if it's to sneak off to the bathroom to meditate for 10 minutes, LOL.

Bottom line is, when you are aware of the difference, you have more options when the cravings come upon you.

I don't know about you, but when I clicked with this idea, I was able to relax about my sugar with meals, because I knew that I'd be okay, that I have an arsenal of options to get me through to the next meal.

Hope this is helpful!
Martha

Martha has been an active member of the Radiant Recovery Community and gave us some of the more exciting reference tools we use. She started her own Coaching company and receives rave reviews from her clients. You can contact Martha through her website at http://brilliantvisions.net.


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.



©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.

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