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November 12, 2012 Hi {!firstname_fix} 
My middle son stopped in for a quick visit on his way from California back to Massachusetts. It was a whistle stop visit, but we had a lot of fun. He came with me to my Gym workout. I was wearing the athletic shirt from the Olympics that Mel gave me when I was in England for Euroranch. Then we went out to breakfast at the Indian Cultural Center. David came over and met us for breakfast and we have a fascinating discussion about the metrics of the election. These guys know statistics talk from their early years of following baseball players and teams. The day before, I was shopping at Whole Foods to get Ted some food for his trip and I had two unique experiences standing there. One was a feeling of being completely and totally in my body. I think the 5 months of going to work out seriously 3 times a week has had a huge effect. It was pretty extraordinary. The second was when I was buying a container of berries and I was flooded with how much I love my children. You know, mostly I talk about the *dog* stuff here to protect my kids' privacy. But they are such a part of my life, my loving and my being, I thought you might enjoy a little glimpse into that part of me. These classes will begin Wednesday, November 14, 2012. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:
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 **********************************************************************
**Quote From Kathleen ** What seems like a story of food is really a story of possibility. **********************************************************************
**Testimonial of the Week ** I've been there, too. Quit sugar cold-turkey because I was too scared to trust that I could do it the way Kathleen wrote it (not the greatest idea, LOL). Ran out of money before I ran out of month (Shredded Wheat and whey protein work fine for breakfast). Wondered if I was ever going to be able to stay with it (I'll have 7 years in RR the first of January). Gained weight. Lost weight. Cried. Learned to laugh. Finally figured out that all of this doesn't have to be hard. I just kept eating breakfast. And I kept posting. The lists are so helpful. You're doing great, Kitty. Every part of every step that you put into place makes a difference. Keep it up! Jo M. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Ambassadors **  Talking about Radiant Recovery doesn't have to be grand. But on the other hand, if you have the opportunity to give a presentation at a conference, you may like to read Diane's account. I never tire of reading it! Hi everyone, The conference and my presentation went really well! I meant to come straight here and share, while finding I needed some time to unwind and digest. It was a really big day. And OK, I was a bit naive about this conference - just what big a deal it really was. I was actually trying to tell myself it wasn't, and trying not to hear Kathleen say it was, LOL. As I sat listening to the keynote speaker, I got goosebumps and tears in my eyes as he talked in depth about the power of peers modeling and sharing recovery so others can have it too - with the reality touching me that this is my path... sharing the program, and well as my own personal life story as well.., to help others. His name was Harvey Rosenthal, the executive director of NYAPRS- New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. As he talked about peers in recovery helping others to heal and transition out of the mental health system, he also talked about healing the mental health system out of the people - which especially spoke to me. I totally got that, and am going to write him to tell him how much I enjoyed hearing him speak and how it touched me, and will share some of my own story, and include a copy of PnP. My presentation was at the end of the day, and I decided to use some of the time in between to make little connections with some of the people that would be attending. Everyone's name tags included the codes for the workshops they had signed up for, so that was easy. I just looked for C3's, and would say, 'Oh..you're taking my workshop!,' strike up a little conversation about it and let them know I was excited they were coming.. and that we would have fun. My networking had a little more powerful impact than I expected, lol, as people were telling their friends, and they were asking to have their workshop choices switched. By the end of the day the registration for my session had doubled. That blew me away. My turn to present was right after a break, and when people started filtering into the room they were carrying giant cookies that someone was handing out down the hall. I thought well..ok good! They are going to *get* what I'm about to share with them, and this could really really help. That helped me to relax. Then I heard someone say they felt guilty bringing a cookie into the *sugar is evil class* and I laughed and said, 'Oh man..they really set you guys up, didn't they!' And then everyone was laughing. We were having fun already! So I introduced myself and shared my history, what things were like before I found the program, how things have changed, and a bit about how things are now. I talked about sugar sensitivity, showed them about volatile blood sugar on a white board, then offered a little break - but no one wanted it, LOL. So I said, 'Ok, anyone wanna do the sugar sensitivity quiz in the handout?' They had a lot of fun with that, and people opened up and started sharing their relationship with sweets and sugar stories, and I shared a couple of my own. The camaraderie with this was really nice, and I loved how it brought us all together as a group. Then I talked about the SS brain chemistry, and more about PnP and the program. I outlined the steps and talked about the website and the community, and more about how life is for me now... offering that I would really love for them to have this too. People asked lots of questions throughout, took a lot of notes and there was a line of people waiting to talk to me at the end. Several people that work for various mental health agencies asked me if I would be interested in coming to do talks there, and gave me their cards. I said I would love to, and will call them this week. :) Diane Well done Diane!! If you want to learn more about how to share Radiant Recovery, from person to person to conference speeches - come on over to the ambassadors list - we'd love to have you! Selena selenas@blueyonder.co.uk Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
**How I Found Radiant Recovery ** My name is Bobi and I live in Texas. I found "The Sugar Addicts Recovery Program" while browsing the library one day and the Radiant Recovery website was listed in the book. I have been on step one for some time. I'm a Dr. Pepper and bread addict and am looking forward to learning how to work the program without gaining more weight. I'm hungry all the time and can't wait for that to go away. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Recovery® Store ** David manages the Radiant Recovery® Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son. 
I have the cookbook and it is tattered and dog eared from so much use. There are many great recipes in it that have become part of my standards (Kathleen's lasagna has never been matched, in my opinion), and it is also a very good little reference book. There are also spaces where I have written a few of my own in.
The recipe for Kathleen's baking mix is in the book, and I use that too, it is quick and easy. - VerlaI love getting these emails...yah the Cookbook is awesome. Even Madison is using it now. And Kathleen’s baking mix is way better than Bisquick!! Get a cookbook if you don’t have one yet. You won’t be sorry. Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen ** Praline Sweet Potato Casserole 
Ingredients:
For more great program-friendly recipes, check out our cookbook in the store and visit our online Radiant Recipes site. **********************************************************************
**Radiant YLD ** You know, I think this is the time of year that many of us used to just sort of give up. Halloween to Christmas was the lost time of paying attention to weight, body image or anything. We just counted it as *lost time* and looked to the new year as our *start* date. Now, through our experiences, we KNOW the silliness of that. This is the time of enjoying the freedom that holidays can be joyful and fun without sweet things. What a fun time we will have a chat this week! If you would like to join, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Radiant Conversations ** We have a new portal for the Conversations program. Come check it out here. In one of the Euro chats we talked about emotional maturity and what it means for all of us. What an incredible sharing. And then in the evening we talked about integrating a sense of the divine in our lives, how doing the food brings us into contact. It all was really lovely. This week we will be talking about what I have written in the article…how to discern the important things of your life while being buffeted by a gadzillion competing demands. 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! **********************************************************************
**Our Online Groups ** Radiant Ambassadors is a work group to help develop ideas to use when sharing information about Radiant Recovery with people you come in contact with--friends, family, church groups, PTAs, etc. Come join us. **********************************************************************
**Building Clarity with Nanos on Stickies ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
In the past few months, it has seemed that I had so much to do that my head was spinning. All the conflicting demands of the things in my life just seemed to paralyze me. I got an idea of taking time to look at all of it systematically and see if I could understand why it felt so overwhelming. I had a planning pad that I had purchased for the New Year. It is kind of a huge sticky pad marked off in 5 columns. The whole right edge has a set of little 1 by 1 inch stickies in different colors. I figured I would do the opposite of the nano process by which we break a problem into smaller and smaller pieces. I would identify all the tiny small pieces, the nano's, and then put them into clumps so I could begin to see patterns.The use of the tiny stickies to write off the things I had to do was just like brainstorming [pic]today's “to do” lists. After about 20 minutes, I began to see patterns. So I put some column headers on the big pad: Golden Retriever Rescue, Radiant Recovery, The Store, Writing and Creative Things, Health and Fitness, Spirituality, Family, Play. Then I began to move the little stickies under the right columns. In 5 minutes, I saw that rescue needed a whole new sheet, so I moved all the rescue stickies to a 2nd big sheet. The same was true for the store and Radiant Recovery. As a moved all the stickies to the new sheets, I was floored at all the stickies everywhere. I thought, " Holy moley, Batman, no wonder you feel so paralyzed! This is way too much for you to be doing." I started to get brain fog. 
So I got up and did laundry, made lunch, went to the gym, took a nap. I came back to the big table with all the sheets. I took the rescue sheet first since it seems to have the least emotional charge. I decided on some columns: dog care dealing with potential adoptees, intake/placement, admin, finances, and legal. I moved all the stickies around until they were in the right place. I had a whole sheet covered with jobs and responsibilities. It was mind-boggling. I had to get up and walk around after that one. So I left it for a day and came back to the process the next day.
The next day I took on the task of sorting out all the stickies for the store. This included things like orders, fulfillment, admin, taxes, customer service, record keeping, and on and on and on I call it. I color-coded the stickies for the store into the things that David is responsible for and the things that I'm responsible for. And I sat and thought about this for a long time and then the next morning I asked David if he would like to go to lunch so that we could talk about all the stickies on this sheet. We had a wonderful time exploring what this sticky stuff meant. He added a few, I added a few. Then I asked him to rank his enjoyment and skill for each of them. We had one of the most interesting management conversations we've had in years. And I came away from that feeling as if the store is working just fine for the most part and I really could hand over to him and not be carrying all those cool stickies in my brain. By this time I had realized that I could mostly do the same thing for the rescue page. I could let things be quiet for a while, not take any new dogs and simply push the pause button for a while so that I could catch my breath.The energy that was flowing with all of this actually surprised me. All of a sudden I began to feel as if I had a set of manageable tasks, or at least parts that I could break down in such a way that they became manageable. Each time I handed over something or I took a sticky off, it freed up more and more energy for me. Then I looked at the columns on my process that were remaining. I saw that I had Radiant Recovery, my creative work, my spiritual practice, my health and fitness program, my friends and family, and play. By this time I was starting to laugh because it was really clear to me that part of my paralysis was a function of things being wholly distorted into my familiar overwork rather than having a balance of play, fun and working hard. I next spent some time with the health and fitness column. This actually is in pretty good shape. It includes things like doing the food, taking care of some minor health issues, and working my fitness program. So each of those stickies could get a check on them and then I was able to set that page aside. So now I had 3 pages that I had essentially taken off the grid and I could begin to turn my attention to the things that were left. 
In some ways it's hard to explain how joyful this process became. Originally I started doing it as a way to climb out of the hole that I felt I was in. But by combining my love of office supplies to help assess different colored stickies and find a pretty flexible and fluid way of looking at all the different pieces I discovered something that was incredibly fun. It was like doing a boardgame.I've included some pictures so that you can see what this looks like. Sometimes a visual is more helpful when we are presenting a new idea like this so you can see what the pages look like. I got the pad at my local office supply store. The stickies included with the original package were kind of useless because they kept falling off. So, of course,I had to go back to the store and buy some new brightly-colored stickies and a new gel pen in a different color so that everything would be color-coded. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. And in fact, the most exciting thing is that this entire article was written by transcription on my computer. This means that I set up my little microphone. Actually it's not so little it's called a snowball and is about the size of a softball and I can speak directly into it. The words get transmitted into a dictation program that writes out what I have said into text. And because my mother was in the theater and later became a speech teacher I learned at a very early age how to enunciate in a way that makes speech to text transcription very easy. And most exciting, it minimizes the number of typos made in the process. Ironic that Dragon Dictate types way better than Kathleen they may zone [Its only error, LOL. I left it for you to enjoy.] At any rate, you know that I love technology, you know that I love the art of making things that are tough simple, and most of all I love bringing joy dots into my life. Thanks for reading! If you know someone who could benefit from this, feel free to forward it to them. Not a subscriber yet? Like what you have read? Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you: http://www.radiantrecovery.com Until next time!
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. ©2012 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/ |
