Hi {!firstname_fix}

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, are enjoying the continuation of Chanukah and the growing light after soltice. I love this quiet time of waiting for the new year. It feels like a week long time of silence and reflection. I am looking forward to 2006 and with great joy.

I LOVED the holy night reflection class! What a gift you all gave me.

We will resume classes after the New Year. Please make sure to check our schedule. A lot is planned, especially the new class on hormones. And for those who are just starting, I put lots on the table for you. You can see an updated schedule for the future by clicking here.

A number of you have asked me how the classes work. Check the class list page for more information on this. The classes are done online with one lesson each day. You do not have to be at your computer at any set time.

Please feel free to pass this week's newsletter on to your friends and family. Don't forget to let me know what you like and would like to see me cover.

Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery® website and Community Forum regularly.

Warmly,
Kathleen

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December 26, 2005
** Quote From Kathleen **

When you pay attention to your body, you are sending it a message that is valuable. If your body feels valuable, it will talk to you kore.


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** Testimonial for the Week**


7 years ago today, I started doing this program. I had already changed the way I ate significantly in the month before discovering PnP, and was already experiencing amazing results. PnP gave me the answers to the questions that had plagued me for years (What was wrong with me?) and gave me the missing pieces to maintain my new eating habits.

I was amazed at the effect what I was eating had had on me. As I did the steps, I began to feel like a different person. All the things I hated about myself were symptoms of a biochemical imbalance, not character flaws. Wow, that was liberating! For the first time in my life, I was able to begin loving myself instead of hating myself.

I won't go into my whole story here, but I had spent most of my life depressed and consumed by self hatred. I tried so hard to change, but I just couldn't. I tried prozac, self help books, group therapy, spiritual workshops and positive thinking. No matter how hard I tried, I would end up depressed and negative and hating myself more than ever because I couldn't be someone else, and feeling totally defective because nothing was working. And the drama! Most of it was in my head. I was constantly imagining bitter, hurtful scenes and replaying painful experiences in my head. And there was always this voice in my head calling me stupid and ugly.

Then I changed the way I ate, and all this stuff began to melt away.

7 years later, I'm doing things I never thought I'd do. I'm about to embark on the biggest and scariest adventure of my life: leaving my family, and New England, where I have lived all my life, and everything familiar, and driving across the country with my pets to settle in Albuquerque NM. I've never been good at leaps of faith, but right now I'm taking a giant one - I currently own two houses I can't afford, and I'll be arriving in NM without a job, trusting that my house in New England will sell and that I'll find a job. This is the biggest risk I have ever taken in my life, and I'm not into risk. But I just reached a point where I had to do it. I had to take a chance on having the life I want to have. I just sensed that if I stayed where I was, my life wasn't going to go anywhere.

I have to add here that all my life, I've been afraid of change, and resisted it. And I have always craved security. I am not an adventurous person. So this is even huger than it could be.

I'm excited and terrified. Moving across the country is a huge project, but I'm taking baby steps, doing one thing and then the next. Now where have I heard that before?

Allison

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**Recipe of the Week**


This is a recipe that many in the community have tried and loved. I hope you like it, too.

Pumpkin Biscuits with Orange Butter

  1. Preheat oven to 450.
  2. Combine first eight ingredients. Cut in chilled butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
  3. Combine milk and pumpkin; add to flour mixture stirring just until moist. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly until it is combined enough to roll out (at least 5 times). Roll dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.
Cut into 12 biscuits with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a backing sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450 for 11 minutes or until golden.

Alternatively, you can place the batter into muffin tins and bake. This will eliminate the need for rolling and cutting the dough.

Mix softened butter and orange flavoring together. Chill for 1 hour before serving with pumpkin biscuits.

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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**


Ok, so your New Year's resolution is humming. Now is the time to get settled and on board with your weight loss program. We are starting the new set of classes soon. People are focused and settled. It is a fabulous time to get on board, learn the ropes and get mobilized.

For those of you who are waiting for the new YLD classes and wondering when we are doing approvals. We are waiting until just before the classes to approve so we can keep track of what is happening. So remember the classes will be:

Introduction to YLD (called YLD foundation) that will orient you to the YLD program and then to the 7 steps that serve as the foundation for weight loss.

YLD is the master list for skill building, questions and community.

YLD weight loss is for those of you who are on step 7 and ready to start your weight loss program.

YLD weight loss in action is for the graduates of YLD weight loss who are ready to amp up the changes in their food programs.

Come and join us. Click here if you are ready to change your life or just plain ole have fun.
 


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**David's Corner **



We have been getting ready for the end of the year inventory and I have been reviewing which of the products you love best. It's funny, but our little Cookbook is one of your favorites. No wonder! I love this little cookbook. It is so, um, user friendly. I figure if even a guy like me can use it, you will LOVE it.
And by the way, if your doggie has dry skin from the winter heat, order some fish oil especially for the pup. That doggie will thank you lots for it.
If you haven't been to the store for a while, how about just coming over and browsing. You will be thrilled to see all the changes!

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

 
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**Our Online Groups**


RadiantPets is tons of fun for all of us critters that live with sugar sensitive humans! We have lots of fun talking about how beta endorphin affect our humans and how we can help give them more BEs with our antics. It is mainly us pawed critters, but we do have the occasional feathered, finned, hoofed, or scaled critter that chime in. We also get to learn new antics to try from our friends on the list. Since we love to make new friends feel free to join in on our fun!

Harley and Ranger (who is no stranger to danger)

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** **
The Law of Threes
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.

I have often been asked why I don't provide a whole list of supplements. "Why only three, Kathleen?"

I operate under The Law of Threes. (I made it up.)

I firmly believe that we sugar sensitive people have "mMush brains." We are smart and intuitive but we have a very hard time "remembering" what we are supposed to do.

However, I have found that I can easily remember three things.

Three key issues (blood sugar, serotonin, beta endorphin), three meals, three vitamins. I thought it would be a good idea to put The Law of Threes to use.

Every year between my birthday in late November and Christmas, I begin thinking about the year completed and the year to come. Where have I been, where do I want to grow and what will it take to get there?

In the past, I would write out many goals. Once I even bought one of those expensive planning systems which provided space in my appointment book to see how I was progressing with each goal. I think we had seven areas to work with. But after about two weeks, my enthusiasm petered out.

I couldn't remember everything I was supposed to be doing, so I simply stopped doing any of it. Sounds like a sugar sensitive person, don't you think?

Then I started working with The Law of Threes. I could remember three things. The idea grew with me. It simplifies and focuses my direction.

My goals:
  • Simplicity
  • Order
  • Kindness
I majored in philosophy in college. It is easy for me to conceptualize global ideas. So even though there are only three goals, they still seemed to be pretty abstract.

So I said, "Okay, Kathleen, what do you mean? Let's get concrete and specific, here." It was fun to tag each goal to a very specific area - making it do-able. So I got to pick three applications for my three goals.

Here is what I chose:
  • Simplicity - Food
  • Order - Money
  • Kindness - Exercise
I was getting closer. But what do "food, money and exercise" mean? Back to the drawing board I went.

Remember now, I was still working with The Law of Threes, so I didn't let myself start making up lists.

Oh, I wanted to. I wanted lists big time. All the things I would do with my food, all the strategies with money, and many, many options for exercise. But I held my pen and worked on holding my brain.

I admit that I kept wanting to drift off in wild reflection... "Well, you could do this...."

"Three, you get to choose three," I told myself. So I went back to my little grid (you know I love those grids)!

It made me laugh.
  • Simplicity - Food - 3 meals each day.
  • Order - Money - Pay bills on time.
  • Kindness - Exercise - Do it.
This wasn't cosmic. I just have to worry about three specific jobs: 3 meals each day. Pay bills on time. Do it.

Of course there will be other things I have to figure out in order to manage these three. I will have to watch the time, go grocery shopping, decide what to cook when, what to eat. But I can just keep the focus on the end task - eat three meals every day.

The same is true for paying the bills on time. I have to remember to bring the mail in, to open it, to register that it is a bill, to note the day it is due, to make sure the money is in the right account. You know the drill. We tend to drift and then we get in trouble. La-La land I call this.

In the past, when I hit La-La land, I would get upset and feel badly, and then would have to avoid those feelings by not doing anything.

Now my pattern is to stay focused on what is manageable. Pay the bills on time. Eat three meals. Exercise.

The end of the story?

If I do my three things, I will get to my goals.

See if you can boil down what you want for next year into three things. Get real simple and real focused and see how it goes.



©Kathleen DesMaisons 2005.

Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together:

Gretel, the liaison for the recovery list and the webmaster puts it all together
Naomi, liaison for big ones gathers the recipes
JoAnna, the liaison for affiliates gathers the testimonials
Marie, the liaison for diabetes gathers the info on the online lists
David, who runs the Radiant Recovery® Store talks about what new products we have.

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/weeklynewsletter.htm.

©2005 by 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 and use this attribution: "By Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. of Radiant Recovery®. Please visit Kathleen's website at http://www.radiantrecovery.com for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction." Please notify me at kathleen@radiantrecovery.com to let me know where the material will appear.

Banner Photograph by Geraint Smith