Well, our preparations for Radiant Ranch have swung into high gear. We are trying a new thing this year. We changed the format to make ranch more accessible. We are doing it on a weekend and we cut the price almost in half. This gives you way more flexibility. It is a time to come and learn core concepts in person, and hear more of the latest things I have been working on. To register, you can go to the Radiant Recovery home page and find the Ranch link under the Make Connections tab. We keep the registration small so that you have a chance to really connect with people and really be able to take in the information in ways that work with your style of learning. Almost all of our leadership attends as well, so you truly get to drink from the well. We will have a wonderful mix of people from all over the US, from Europe and from Australia. And this year, we have invited some of my friends and colleagues at the Hopi Nation to join us as well. And of course, regular life at the learning institute continues. We will be starting these new classes the week of 2/28. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Step 2: Journal, Skillful Use is the next level of journaling. This is for those of you who know *how* and want to learn what to do with your data. This class shows you how to interpret what you have written in an exciting and pragmatic way. Back to Basics 2 is the continuation of the regroup and get back on track class that started last week. Diabetes is a place to learn about how to do the program while learning about healing your diabetes as well. See how to integrate the program steps and the info you are getting from other places. Using the Resources of the Community is 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 by Kathleen herself! And even if you are not brand new, this is a really fun class to reconnect with all the treats of the community. YLDweightlossinaction is for those of you who are ready to rock and get started. This class is for YLD members who have 6 months steady on step 7. I am stoked about this particular round! For those of you in YLD who have been waiting, waiting, now is the time to sign up and get rolling. We will be starting these new classes the week of 3/7. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Brain Chemistry: Serotonin is the other of our most popular classes. It helps you make sense of why the potato works, why you have a problem in the winter and how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can play into this. If you munch in your mind, if you are depressed or edgy or feel sad, this is the class for you. Step 1: The Art of Breakfast 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. Doing the Program on a Budget is a special free class for those of you with limited funding who are trying to make do. Come hear some fun ideas to maintain your humor and find tasty and inexpensive solutions. I have posted the class schedule on line. 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. The classes are done online with one lesson each day. You do not have to be at your computer at any set time. 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. 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 **********************************************************************
February 26, 2006 ** Quote From Kathleen **  "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. From The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff, Ernest H. Shepard (Illustrator). Viking Press, 1983. *********************************************************************
** Testimonial for the Week**
Emily is on the Parents team, and as you can see, she is just getting ready for the middle of step 6. OK. I've decided and I'm happy and excited (which seems weird - I thought I'd be sad) to report that Monday I will begin my detox. I feel ready. Val asked how much sugar I'm actually having and my first response was TONS, but then I stepped back. I have a small serving of something at lunch and dinner each day. It is steady and regular. Gone are the days of binging, driving to the grocery store for sweets at odd hours of the day and consuming them in the car before I even get home. Gone are the days when anything in the house means it is in my body within hours. I gave up soda over a year ago - it tastes awful to me now. I have periodically tried and I can't figure out how I drank it for so long. No more weekend donut days, etc. So, I guess when I think about it, I don't have that much sugar in my diet and the biggest thing is this dessert at lunch and dinner each day. I'm not going to worry too much about coverts right now - one thing at a time, but I doubt I have too, too many. My body has even been making a natural shift from the chocolate shake I used to love and figured I'd never give up to a fruit one. I'm going to take the weekend to clear out my cupboards and make sure I have lots of good food in the house. I finally read more of the books, LOL, and it was like when I read the first few chapters in the beginning. They called to me. It was like Kathleen was writing my feelings and thoughts. I came up with some things that I can do if it is rough - reading a good book, cross stitching, scrapbooking. I think the hardest part now is not knowing how I'll react, but I feel totally ready. I've told my husband and he's supportive. Thanks for the nudge Kathleen and for everyone's support. ********************************************************************
*Note from the editor (grin). I made a typo in last week's recipe from Naomi. Under The Topping, it should have read 1/3 c. rolled oats. Kathleen got this recipe from Maggi. Maggi served it to Kathleen when she was up in Minnesota and Kathleen loved it. PUMPKIN CUSTARD
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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**
YLDonline is a membership weightlossprogram run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself. I am thrilled that our revision of YLD is working so well. We have just graduated the first class of the Weight Loss Readiness Class. The members totally got the concepts. Whew, how exciting was that!! This next week I am starting the first totally revised Weight Loss in Action Class. This is the OK, now you are steady, let’s get serious and do this puppy class, heh heh. I am really looking forward to it. And if you read last week’s chat, you will see that we are working on the best ways to share information with everyone in the program. We want the new people to have the benefit of the wisdom of the more experienced folks. If you are not a YLD member, come and join us. Click here if you are ready to change your life or just plain ole have fun. ********************************************************* ***********
**David's Corner **
David manages the Radiant Recovery Store. He is also Kathleen’s oldest son.  I heard from some of you that you are giving your books away and away. I was thinking I would offer you a special on books to pass on. If you order 5 or more books at once, I will give you a 10% discount off prices shown below this week. Here is what we have:
Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. ********************************************************* ***********
**Our Online Groups**
Ann, Step 7 is the liaison for Bigones. She also is the liaison for the Big Apple Group and Elders. RadiantBigOnes is for those persons who have 100 or more pounds to lose. The list is unique in that we don't just focus on food challenges -- although getting 42 grams of protein at a meal can certainly be a challenge! -- but we also share information and support for issues that non-BigOnes may not even realize are an issue in day-to-day life. The interaction on this list is great because everyone is so supportive of everyone else and we learn so much from each other. We have people on the list who are in various stages of the 7 Steps, so if you're a BigOne, you'll fit right in! Come Join us!!! ********************************************************************
**The C57 Story** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. Science has a lot to learn about sugar sensitivity. We can't just go to PubMEd, put "sugar sensitivity" in the search field and find hundreds or thousands of citations telling us all about our unique bodies and behaviors. But the story is there in the science writings, encoded in unexpected places and in unexpected ways. If we listen and watch our own stories, we can go back to the literature and better understand the whys of what we are living. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my recent exploration. I continue to be intrigued by beta-endorphin and its relationship to the story of sugar sensitivity. I began my relationship with beta-endorphin when I learned two intriguing themes. The first came from the work of Dr. Christine Gianoulakis at McGill University. She noticed that two different strains of mice responded to the effects of alcohol in very different ways. The C57GL/6 mice had a far more potent reaction than their "dry" brothers and sisters, the DBA/2 mice. Because of this intensity of the response, they really go for the booze. C57s are called alcohol-preferring mice and DBAs are called alcohol-avoiding mice. As an aside, many other studies have shown that not only do the C57s have a high preference for alcohol, they also love sweet things. In fact, some scientists are working with the concept that a preference for sweet may be an indicator of a risk for alcoholism. Dr. Gianoulakis and her colleagues have worked with these mice for a long time. They discovered that the C57's and the DBA have very different levels of beta-endorphin. The C57's are born with much lower levels of beta endorphin in their brains, so their brains increase the number of receptor sites to try to catch more of the beta endorphin molecules. This is called upregulation. Because they have more places to catch the beta-endorphin, they get a bigger response to things that evoke beta-endorphin. Dr. Gianoulakis extended her study to people and examined a whole group of people who are known to be genetically predisposed to alcohol addiction, the children and grandchildren of alcoholics. Children and grandchildren of alcoholics seem to be the human equivalent of the C57 mice. They, like the mice, have lowered levels of beta-endorphin and a heightened response to things that evoke beta-endorphin like alcohol and sugars. As Dr. Gianoulakis was publishing her work, a number of other scientists were noticing that that sucrose quieted pain. They discovered that not only does sucrose quiet physical pain, but also it quiets the pain of loss or social isolation. When a group of baby chicks were taken from their mama, they peeped and peeped. When they were given sugar water, they stopped crying for mama chicken. Sugar as a Drug Dr. Elliott Blass, then at Cornell, wanted to understand how this happens. How could sugar act like a drug? He did some experiments and showed that sucrose cut physical and emotional pain by evoking the brain's own beta-endorphin. Beta-endorphin is the body's natural painkiller. It is called an endogenous opioid or internal painkiller. Morphine and heroine are opiate drugs, which mean they go and sit in the brain's beta-endorphin receptor sites and get the brain to block pain signals. Sucrose acts like an opioid drug such as morphine or heroin. Not as intensely, but on the same beta-endorphin system. And, if we return to our friends the C57 and the DBA mice, we discover that the C57s have a 35 times more powerful reaction to morphine than do the DBAs. Think of that. Insert sugar in the place of morphine, and we begin to see why some body and brain types seek it, love it and get addicted to it. Now the sugar story and the connection to C57's is well researched throughout the scientific literature. But no one in the science lab is yet making this leap from the C57 profile to the sugar sensitivity profile in people. But the "match" is extraordinary. How We Are Like Those C57 Mice If we start thinking of ourselves as little C57 mice, we can have LOTS of clues about why we act the way we do. And we can start understanding why our DBA friends cannot in any way understand why we keeping going back when they are able to just say no. As we continue this discussion, let's stop for a moment and take one cautionary note about our attitudes towards the different types of mice (or people). Scientists do not look down upon the little C57s. Nor do they laud the DBA. They simply know that they are two very distinct strains with different body chemistries. If they wish to look at the effect of a given intervention and want to see the differences in different body types, they order both kinds of mice. Getting Rid of the Negative Spin So, we can work on taking the negative judgment and shame off of the C57 way of life. Our first step is understanding. As we get how this works, we can start making choices for healing. And then TURN US LOOSE! Let me list some of the C57 "facts" I have found with my own research. I can then reflect with you on what it might mean for our healing.
Let's Apply the Science to Ourselves Let's translate these and play a little. Replace the word C57 with a sugar sensitive person and replace the word morphine with sugars. Let's go through the list again.
The Patterns Are Powerful Pretty interesting isn't it. For many years we have struggled with learned helplessness, with self-esteem that fades in a moment. We vacillate between hyperactive clarity and lying on the couch in a stupor. The Dr. Jeykll/Ms.Hyde syndrome is very close to home. Beyond Mood Swings But now, I am pushing us beyond the idea of mood swings. I am inviting you think of yourself as a big C57 and to connect with the enormity of what these mouse studies mean for us. Those things which we have considered "character flaws" for all this time are a function of your sugar sensitive biochemistry. Our alcohol, sugar, fat, white things literally get us mobilized, make us brave, funny, self confident for a little. But we only remember the feeling okay, feeling brave. It's why so many people who come to the forum lament that they cannot imagine giving up the sugar. It's the "only" thing that makes life worth living. This is addiction. This is being caught in a place that kills us. But we don't see it. The Power and the Disappointment of Beta Endorphin The beta-endorphin hit wears off and we crash. Then it's horrible. And we become more immobile, hopeless, demoralized, overwhelmed and tearful. But we do not make the connection to withdrawal. What we remember is that when we "use" we feel okay. And so we are willing to trade 30 minutes, then ten minutes, of feeling okay for the rest being horrible because we are so desperate to feel okay. We will do ANYTHING not to experience the horror of the withdrawal. Ironically, many sugar sensitive people are very intolerant of alcoholics and drug addicts. But alcoholism and drug addiction are only the more intense forms of what we ourselves experience - a life driven to feeling better, terror of the withdrawal, and a life centered around getting our "fix." Putting the Story Together And along comes the Potatoes Not Prozac food plan. Suddenly things start to make sense. The vague "knowing" we have had for a while (and we are intuitive people!) gets a name, It makes sense. We don't have to think of ourselves as hopeless, depressed and out of control. We are sugar sensitive. But Potatoes Not Prozac is only the beginning of the story. We create stability. We heal the brain. We take out the foods like sugar and white things that prime us. Sometimes this spooks us because when we take out the stuff that has made us feel "good" in the past, we enter an uneasy space. We feel better overall, but hardly confident. After all, our core brain is a C57, not a DBA. Raising Beta Endorphin Naturally This is the magic of all those things we affectionately refer to on the www.radiantrecovery.com forum as BE raising activities. Mozart, laughter, exercise, yoga, meditation, prayer, pups, babies, grandbabies, good sex, rollerblading, and great movies. What is not to like in the list? Do these things and create beta-endorphin. Slow and steady beta-endorphin. They wash us with feeling self-confident. And it grows on us. The more we feel it, the more we want to do these things. Many of us have been listening to the voices on the forum. We can see these patterns as our friends in the sugar sensitive community make changes with the food. The voices of our "newbies" are very different from the voices of the "old-timers." When our food wobbles, we wobble. We whine, we munch, we get cranky. We go into beta-endorphin crash. We retreat, we isolate, and we crouch, get defensive and withdraw. Beta-endorphin crash. Claiming Our Birthright And miracle of miracles, when the food is steady, we are steady. We are funny, compassionate, tolerate, patient, resourceful and willing to hang in there and find solutions. Same bodies, same brains, same biochemistry. But under the influence of a different way of eating. Balance brings our birthright home. ©Kathleen DesMaisons 2007. 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 gathers the recipes. 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. ©2007 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 Patti Holden, Step 7 |
