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Radiant Coaching
Coaching is individualized support directly from Kathleen. We have an apprentice coaching group to work on Steps 1-3. Everyone gets individualized attention suited to where she or he is in the process. The commitment is for 2 week
intervals.
The fee for individual coaching from Kathleen is $20 a week billed in 2 week intervals.
Classes
This class will start, Wednesday, October 24th
Using The Resources of the Community
This is also a
free introductory class to show you around resources offered. We will explain how the newsletter works, give you a look at the Community Forum, explain how the groups work, talk about the classes and the Weight Loss Program called Your Last Diet and anything else you might be wondering about.
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“Your journal can become the heartbeat of your program. ”
Testimonial of the Week *watching the jays on my feeder *cranes flying over the house
*starting an Elizabeth George mystery
Maria and Pam mentioned that as they do the steps, they feel less "sparkly". In step 6, there's something we call "the flat", where you have lost your spiky sugar highs, and life feels dull. Then, over
time, you get used to not having all those highs and lows, and come to appreciate life being calmer, your normal emotional state improves, and you also begin to feel joy again. But it's a different kind of joy. I didn't have a lot of joy before the program. In order for me to feel joy, it had to be some huge exciting thing. If you drew a line to represent a neutral state, my emotional ups and downs were mostly
below that line, with an occasional huge spike that went above the line. It was really hard for me to give up the things that gave me those big spikes, because the rest of my emotional life was not very pleasant. One of the ways that played out for me was bad relationships. The last one I had was so very painful, but I couldn't seem to let it go because every once in a while it would go right and I'd have a huge joy spike. The rest of the time I was so unhappy about it that I really needed that
joy spike, or at least I felt as though I did, so even though I knew the relationship wasn't good for me, I couldn't let go of it. After I started doing the food, my emotional ups and downs gradually became less intense, and my baseline gradually moved above the neutral line, instead of being below it. I would say that my lows now are probably what would have been my emotional midline before, and they don't last
long. As my emotional life got calmer and happier, I was able to let go of that bad relationship and many of the ways I used to create drama began to fade out of my life naturally. I began to experience moments of joy, but they were totally different from what I used to experience. They weren't big, spiky highs. They were experiences where I was totally in the moment, just enjoying what I was seeing or doing. It's more of a warm glow instead of a bolt of lightning. Before the program, there was a huge mental component to my emotions, because everything that I experienced was accompanied by mental chatter. Now it's a lot quieter in my head, and when I feel joy, it feels like it's radiating from my heart, not being amplified in my head. I've also found that my ability to feel joy is less dependent on other people or big life events. I don't look to others to supply joy in my life, and I notice things
more, so even when there are things in my life that are troubling me, I can look around me and find things that give me joy, or do activities that bring me joy. I know what sorts of things bring me joy, so I plan some of those things into my day, like making sure to check out the fields and power poles for wildlife on the way to work, looking at the clouds and the mountains when I'm driving, and planting flowers in planters outside the front door at work so that I see something cheerful when I
arrive at work. This is not to say that my life is perfect or I go around in some state of constant bliss. But my life is so much better than it used to be. I would never want to go back to the way it was. And I will take this new kind of joy over the spiky kind any day. Allison |
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Radiant Recovery Store
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This is a fabulous product for *dry eye*. We send out a lot of it and people love it. I know I put it in last week too, but some of you asked me to do it again so here you go.
Come visit our STORE. Call 505-345-3737 if you have questions. David is always happy to help. |
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I Have been putting together a resource list for some people who are dealing with Huntingdon's Disease. I was looking for nutritional interventions that support neurological degeneration. I think many of
us are also dealing with *oxidative* stress so these articles can give us some tools no matter what.
Avocado as a Major Dietary Source of Antioxidants and Its Preventive Role in Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Kalandar Ameer: Adv Neurobiol. 2016 ;12:337-54. PMID: 27651262
Avocados have a high content of phytochemicals especially antioxidants with potential neuroprotective effect. Aging is the major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. A large body of evidence indicates that oxidative stress is involved in the pathophysiology of these diseases. Oxidative stress can induce
neuronal damages and modulate intracellular signaling, ultimately leading to neuronal death by apoptosis or necrosis. There is evidence for increased oxidative damage to macromolecules in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Thus, antioxidants have been used for their effectiveness in reducing these deleterious effects and neuronal death in many in vitro and in vivo studies. The critical review results indicate that compounds in
avocado are unique antioxidants, preferentially suppressing radical generation, and thus may be promising as effective neuropreventive agents. The diverse array of bioactive nutrients present in avocado plays a pivotal role in the prevention and cure of various neurodegenerative diseases.
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I am going to start posting our program friendly holiday recipes so you will have them now. We will also be adding them to the Recipe Pages on the website.
Ingredients: - 4 Valencia oranges
- Rind of one orange
- 4 cups apple juice
- 2 LB. Fresh cranberries
- 1 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1 tsp. Cinnamon
- 1 pinch
nutmeg
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Directions: 1. Cut up the oranges, add the rind of one of them simmer in 4 cups apple juice for 15 minutes. 2. Add 2 lbs. fresh cranberries and 1 1/2 cup of walnuts. 3. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes until it thickens. 4. Add 1 tsp. cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg
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We have YLD chats every week. Sometimes they are *working* conversations where we do problem solving with people who are stuck. Sometimes we spend time with brand new people sorting out breakfast or negotiating the website. This past week we got into a conversation about the German translation of British *Wellies*. It was one of the funniest chats we have had in 20 years. We were literally laughing so hard we could barely type. And it was a bit risqué. Janice edits the
chats and wrote me and said, *Do I edit that part out?*. And I said, *Naw, let people see how we get when our food is balanced, LOL* But I will say that we do way more than talk about calories or restriction for sure.
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Some of the old timers wanted to have a place to share about *refinements* and *life enhancements*. We have support for depression and cooking and fitness, but nowhere to look at
*life* stuff. The logical option is Radiant Living. It is kinda the *after the food* place. If you are steady with your food, think about becoming a Living member to share in our weekly chats on life topics. Life topics do include such things as using Patreon to support creative endeavor.
If you would like to join us in Radiant Living, come find us here. |
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Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
Every Friday, I read a UK newspaper called The Guardian. I started doing this on my vacations in Maine. When I go to Maine, I go to an Island called Vinalhaven, I stay with my brother and his wife. She is French and they both have a more global perspective of the
world than I have had. He judges stamp shows all over the world and she often travels with him. When I call, I never know where they might be. Could be Singapore or Brazil or Switzerland or Nairobi. But they rest in Maine for the summer. While they are there they make fine coffee, and read The Guardian. It is a nice tradition, so I continue it at home. When Brexit was brewing in England, we talked about
it on vacation. When the British Virgin Islands were hit by a hurricane, my brother spent time explaining island history to me. His stamp expertise is in the history of the British Virgin Islands. So now I continue with the reading and having a sense of the world. It helps me know that what is happening in the US is happening all over the world. Tuesday morning, I dropped my grandson off at a film
location at 4:30 AM. He is working as a production assistant and his car broke down, so it was Uber or me. After I dropped him off, it was still dark and I got to thinking about how I used to be afraid of the dark. Now I am not and I cherish the stillness of the very early morning. As I was driving. I was reflecting on fires and hurricanes and devastation and bombs and struggles of power and corruption. Sometimes I just feel paralyzed by that energy when I'm in the middle of it. I struggle with psychic exhaustion and feeling I just want to opt out. It seems too much, too overwhelming. What can I, as one person, do to affect a world so out of balance? But as I was driving in the darkness some wonderful things happened. I heard the cranes calling. I saw a skinny coyote running through a field of young alfalfa. I felt my dog’s breath warm on my neck. The string of my own joy dots made
me think about healing “unbalance.” My thoughts turned to reflections about what we, as a community, know. We know that tiny nano steps add up. We have learned that staying with one choice at a time crafts bigger change. We know that if we "do the food "our world changes. If we are in balance, everything shifts. We do little things like back off on the Diet Coke, shift from three grams of protein to four, have water instead of soda. We eat our meal at 12:15 rather than 1:10. These tiny changes have a big impact. Rationally it makes no sense. We cannot explain it to skeptical family members, but we know something is happening. We stop being angry or afraid. Our balance steadies. And then the balance pulls others
into its orbit. We get steady, our kids change. We get steady, the pets relax. We get steady, and strangely enough, the people around us change. Doing the food does not mean perfection or every day or always and forever. It simply means this one choice. I will have breakfast, I will have enough. I will have it on time. I will stop for lunch. I will have real dinner. I will eat a potato and not potato
chips. The big world may be shuddering, but I am OK. I can light my little candle, I can be still for 20 minutes and bring a tiny dot of solace to birth. My joy dots can seed yours. Yours can seed mine. Steph posts a picture of her walk around a little pond, Karen is riding a pony, Kath is cooking in her kitchen in Perth. Del is getting orchids for her new flat in Germany, Allison reports the
cranes calling, Gretel sends pictures of PJ with pumpkins, Bob shares that he is cancer free and doing yoga again. Melanie is joyful in Utah, Maria has gotten married, Helen’s new knee lets her walk on the beach after an Irish hurricane. We are so deeply connected. One post from Perth settles another day Virginia. One cup of tea in Aberdeen sends solace to an Indiana kitchen. Stillness in Tallahassee
quiets sorrow in Sebastopol. We are tiny points on a net of commitment. A number of years ago we imagined a hair net with little beads of light twinkling. Now it is a reality. I didn’t really know it would happen this way. I hadn’t really connected to how powerful the community has become until I wrote this. When I started many years ago, I simply wanted to create a place where people could support one another in
learning how to do the food. Grace had other plans.
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