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March 28, 2016 Hi {!firstname_fix} 
As we have been debriefing EuroRanch, I have realized that US Ranch is right around the corner. We have had a number of thoughtful discussions in chat and several people said it would be great to hear in more detail what actually happens. This is not simply a *seminar* type experience where you come and listen to me teach information. It is an interactive process based on best practices in learning theory. So you will learn information, but you will learn it in a way that helps you remember it. And you will have an opportunity to hear how others are working with the information, so it becomes a dynamic process rather than simply static data sharing. I work hard to have you make sense of meaning.Let me remind you of the wonderful highlights we have planned:
Here is a quote from one of the participants:Kathleen, I thought I was coming for a *seminar.* I had no idea it would be life changing. It was so gentle, so kind and so informative, I was just blown away. You have got me for life! Come to Albuquerque, New Mexico and experience the best of the Land of Enchantment. Click here for more details or call at 505-345-3737. If you have questions. And remember, I am offering a specific and rather unusual specific promotional offering. If you are thinking about doing the Signature Consultation and sign up now, your tuition for Ranch will be included. Or if you already signed up for Ranch and want to add in the Signature Consultation, I will credit you what you paid for your Ranch tuition for the Signature. I will not be offering this opportunity for the rest of the year. This class will begin Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Please Signup and it will take you to the registration page:
This class will begin Wednesday, April 6, 2016. Please Signup and it will take you to the registration page:
Check the class list page for more information on how the classes work. See the the Class Schedule here. Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery website and Community Forum regularly. Warmly, Kathleen **********************************************************************
**Quote From Kathleen**Your journal will help you sort out what is really going on in your brain chemistry and your body. **********************************************************************
**Testimonial of the Week**I'm glad Selma brought this up. I've been meaning to comment on the 'being stuck' chats. I'm one who stayed stuck at step 2 for a year and a half. For me this means I was solid on breakfast that entire time. I journalled sporadically - on for several weeks then lapsing, then back on again. I made forays into step three, would see progress, then school would start or whatever and throw my schedule off. I read the forum and this list regularly and went to chats but didn't post or participate. So why couldn't I get on with it? Isolation, fear and sloppy intention. I was truly afraid of how my life might have to change if I were happy and sane. In the meantime things had improved a lot. I was able to stop taking the antidepressant I'd been on for 10 years. I pretty much stopped yelling at my kids. My anger and rage were greatly reduced. I gradually, without effort, reduced candy consumption to almost nothing (candy was my sugar of choice). I could stand my life. I wasn't desperate so I was sloppy because it was easier. So what happened to get me going? First, Kathleen told someone that if they were having so much trouble with their journal (I don't remember the details) they should move on to step 3. This was a revelation! I could move on as long as I kept trying to journal. Second, Kathleen posted about 'the step 7 dilemma,' how we see things differently with radiance and sometimes have to make big changes in our lives. I copied it down and read it over and over. That was in the summer I think, and by fall I knew that fear and isolation were holding me back. I kept hearing in my head Kathleen saying "you cannot heal in isolation." I did a 90/90 posting on the forum to get out of isolation and get step 3 going and steady. It worked. I was starting step 4 when the 'life event' happened and I stayed at 3 and slowly the journal started getting sloppy again. I posted my journal for a while and got the potato going. Then something shifted. My commitment went to another level. It was like, "let's just do this." No big fanfare. Just 'doing it.' The next chat I went to was the 1st 'being stuck, and just doing it' one. Pretty cool, I thought. So now my journal is steady, step 3 is steady, step 4 is steady. I am reading up on step 5 and thinking of what it will require of me. I cook ahead. I don't run out of potatoes and some are cooked ahead. I find myself needing vegetables with lunch and dinner. So do I have a point here? Even though I was "stuck" for a long time, I'm not sure it was a bad thing. I was in a pretty steady place emotionally when I did start to move on. I don't know what could have gotten me moving sooner. Maybe knowing that I didn't have to love the journal, that I could do step 3 and 2 at the same time. Definitely, connecting would have made a difference. After all, you can't give me a nudge if you don't know I'm here. In the end I think I just had to come to the realization that this - Radiance, a step7 life - is what I want. More than anything else. More than being lazy, or careless, or mindless when it comes to food. To realize that how I feel and how I am in this world is worth more to me than the passing pleasure of sugar, whites, and grazing. I guess maybe we all get to this place in our own time and our own way. Thanks for listening, Janice in Maryland **********************************************************************
**Interesting Bits of Science**I was writing a response to someone who is enchanted about Coke Zero and really didn’t know what was in it. So I went and looked. Basically, it is the same formula as Diet Coke. Their marketing people found that men didn’t respond to *diet* because they thought it was a girl thing, so they needed to produce a more manly product. New image, black and red, but essentially the same formula. Now my thoughts on Diet/Zero coke. It is made with aspartame. Aspartame is not a good thing. If you want to read more about that, go over to Mercola’s site and read his article. From my perspective, the key thing for us is that aspartame is made with the amino acid phenylalanine. This particular amino acid is the precursor to dopamine and I believe sparks it for us. We literally feel *brighter* when we have it. And we feel so horrible when it wears off, we need to have it again, and again. Personally, I am very drawn to Diet Coke (and I suppose to Zero although I have never had it) and LOVE the synergistic effect of caffeine and the phenylalanine. If I have it, just one, I want more. And then it takes a week or two for my recovery brain to make me REMEMBER this is bad, very bad. And then after I stop I feel bleak, dark, grey and sometimes suicidal. Not a pretty sight. If you drink it, I encourage you to stop. Do NOT stop cold turkey. Write me and I will tell you how. **********************************************************************
**Notes from the Forum **In Response To: Tired Hi there, I used to be so addicted to coffee. I thought I would never ever let go of it. However, I did just start not fancying it. Amazing! And that was my cue to switch to decaf. I still choose decaf a few times a day now. I can't honestly remember if I was tired or not as it's so long ago. I had done it many times before and remember being exhausted. This last time, not so much... steps supporting me most likely. One thing does come to my mind. About a year ago I had a cup of ordinary coffee by mistake and I didn't sleep all night! Palpitations and alert. I am laughing because it was so peculiar. I'm going, "Oh no, I forgot to say decaf!" So that just demonstrated how much of an effect it has on me. One cup for all that disruption and I used to have 9, 10 a day! Step three is fantastic I think. I bet it will be a real help to you through this. The structure of it is so soothing for me. What are you thinking of it? Mosaic **********************************************************************
**Radiant Recovery® Store** We have a number of new people just starting out. They asked me what is the best information to help me know what to do. I always suggest getting the Complete Course CDs. Not only do they include a great discussion of the steps, but they talk about *What Else is Embedded in the Steps.* Hear Kathleen discuss what is under the food part, the core process changes they help you heal your addictive brain. Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen**This is a recipe from Maggi. She served it when I was up in Minnesota and I loved it. PUMPKIN CUSTARD
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**Radiant Your Last Diet**I thought you might enjoy hearing some comments from YLD members. A lot is bubbling in YLD. It's funny that something we have been doing for a while can just come alive. Last's week chat was great. We had LOTS of new people and it was rolling. I think the orientation has really provided some great insight for long term members. Listen to what Jim had to say. I love chat. It's one of the things that really hooked me and has helped me to get steady with my program. When I first joined YLD, the Wednesday chats featured some deep topics, such as how the brain works (microtubules), discounting and reframing, and alpha endorphin. The discounting and reframing chat was a big deal for me; my whole body was tingling during that one :) My point is that I love chat, and those deep topics really speak to me. If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Radiant Living**I was formatting the Radiant Life Chats that were held while I was in the UK. It just made me smile. Here were these wonderful people just having a great time talking about *life* and how things change with the program. If you would like ongoing support as you work through the steps, here is a great resource for you. If you would like to join us in Radiant Living, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Making Change**Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
Every week, I get many letters from people who feel inadequate, overwhelmed, fat, out of control and unable to do the program. Or I get letters from people who feel buffeted by the stress in their lives. People have died, work is demanding, no time, no space, no capacity to “do” anything but get by. And each time I say, "These feelings are caused by being out of balance. The stress does not create the feelings, your biochemistry does." When you are balanced, you respond to stress differently, it becomes functional rather than overwhelming. You stand in the center of the swirl with a sense of calm and clarity about priorities and demands. And when you are not balanced, that idea seems totally off the wall. When you are in the middle of what I call sugar feelings, you will be reactive and feel done to. You will feel like a victim. You will feel like you can do nothing right. And of course it seems like these feelings are REAL because it is what you feel. And when you feel that way, you need something to help you hold them, so you get ice cream and soda. And you feel better for a little while. Life is manageable for a few minutes and you are seduced into thinking that this is comfort. But what you think is comforting you is the cause of what you are feeling. It is a deadly, seductive dance. When you are in that place, the idea of the “program” seems totally overwhelming. No, you cannot give up sugar. No, you cannot manage to plan anything. I just don’t get it! You feel it is just too big and too unattainable. It is too much so you need to just give up and feel that nothing will work. So, here is the bottom line. This program can not only save your life, it can transform it. It can make you clear and steady. It can give you a platform for losing weight. But it cannot work its magic unless you do it. And you do not have to do it all at once. You do not have to be perfect or rigorous or disciplined. You can come, you can whine, you can stumble. But if you show up, you ask for help and you listen, and then you follow instructions, things will change. Sugar sensitive people are notorious for not listening. We think we know better. We think that we are unique, a special case and the plain ole boring do the steps slowly and in order does not really fit our situation. That way of thinking has to go. If you want what we have, do what we do. We do the steps. We have breakfast every morning, on time. We journal. We eat meals on time. We have enough protein for our body. We take the vitamins and eat the potato. We eat whole grains and we do not have sugar. We are funny, focused and purposeful. And we are NOT different from you. We were there in that dark, horrible place. Every single one of us, including me, has been there. And it is a place we do not want to go back to. The way out was not magic. It was showing up and "doing." Doing breakfast, doing journal. Doing potato. One choice at a time. One day at a time. As I said last week, "Nodding will not heal you." Agreement will not make change. Commitment makes change. You do not have to live that way any more. Come on over and let’s do this together. **********************************************************************
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. Mosaic contributes to the Notes from the Forum column. ©2016 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://radiantrecovery.com/learn/newsletter/ |
