Hi {!firstname_fix}

There have been a few days when it has been warm in the afternoon. Yesterday, coming back from the beach, I was walking down the path through the beach grass and saw a blade of grass. I have also seen robins. We had some folks from England here for our step 7 meditation seminar. Their robins are smaller. They called Maine robins, *robins on steroids*.

Now energy is shifting to our annual meeting in Albuquerque. We are all getting excited. It is in a new hotel with a gorgeous swimming pool and a meeting room with a carpet, so there will be no sounds of chairs scraping across the floor.

We have a number of people who have asked for scholarships. They are on disability, social security or have had recent financial hardship such as Carol who lost her house in a fire. We try to make ranch accessible for community members who have really made a commitment to their recovery. I know that we can once again count on your generousity to help with this project. We have put up a special link in the store for the scholarship fund.



These classes will begin Wednesday, April 9, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page:

Brain Chemistry: Dopamine is the newest addition to the brain chemistry series. Learn about the mighty cousin to serotonin and beta endorphin. Learn how he sparkles and seduces and what to do to have him as an ally rather than a dragon

Radiant Store Tour is a free guided tour of the store. David will be leading this class so if you want to get to know the guy that makes it all work, come sign up.


These classes will begin Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page:

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.

Step 2: Journal, Introduction will teach you the basics of journaling. The class will give you step by step instructions in how to record your food and feelings in a way that gets you excited.

Diabetes is a unique resource we do for people who are dealing with diabetes or who have been diagnosed as prediabetic. If you would like to come and learn how the program can transform your biochemistry, here is the place to do it. Our teaching team will include the members of the diabetes list leadership team.


The class schedule is on line. Click here to see what is planned. Please do not sign up for classes that are not yet scheduled.

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 and you do not have to be at your computer at any set time. It does not matter whether you are in the US, Europe, the Far East or Australia, you simply respond on your own time. And although I advertise that the classes are one or two weeks, sometimes we are a little flexible and they may run longer.

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

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April 7, 2008
** Quote From Kathleen **


Doing the food creates a steady bowl to hold your life experience. As it fills, the connection deepens inside and outside.

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** Testimonial for the Week**


I remember the day I realized I loved my journal. It was about six months after I started journaling. Up until that point it was just an exercise in showing up. I went on a trip and forgot my journal. I was quite surprised how much I missed it. It had become a real way to connect with myself. I hadn't yet developed a back up plan for journaling without my journal.

There have been times over the last 7 years that I have lost that connection and just showed up for a while. But in the back of my mind I knew that I'd get through that phase and the connection would return. That was before I really started to learn how to review. I still have to consciously remember to review on a regular basis, but that has improved a lot since I returned to this list and my love for my journal has increased immensely since I started developing my reviewing process. I'm very grateful for my developing the habit of showing up.

Terri

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**Radiant Ambassadors**


While we were in Maine, Diane and I took great pleasure in talking to the Receptionist about RR - telling her a little of our stories and how the program works. She was blown away with what we said and even managed to organise boiled eggs, cottage cheese and oatmeal for our breakfast - fantastic!

Diane gave her a RR card (they are just fabulous to carry around - you never know when you might need one!) and she said that she would be buying a copy of Potatoes not Prozac for both herself and her son.

Yay - little by little we'll get the story out!

Selena

Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news.

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**Radiant Kitchen**


SHEPHERD’S PIE
Ingredients:

  • 3 large, floury potatoes, washed and cut into medium size chunks –do not peel
  • 3 TBS. butter
  • ½ cup milk (cow, oat, soy)
  • 1½ lb. ground meat (beef, turkey, or pork or a combination of 2 or 3)*
  • 1/3 cup carrot, small dice
  • 1/3 cup onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • ½ tsp. thyme
  • ¼ tsp. black pepper
  • 1 cup beef stock (or chicken or vegetable, if you prefer)*
  • 1 TBS. tomato paste
  • 1 tsp. cornstarch diluted in 1 TBS. water
  • 3 TBS. olive oil, divided
  • 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
  • 1/3 cup Parmesan
  • Salt, pepper to taste


Process:

  1. Prepare thick mashed potatoes. Boil potato chunks in salted water until potatoes are just tender, not mushy. Drain well and let dry at room temperature or over low heat in a saucepan. When potatoes are dry, combine with butter and milk, whipping into a smooth, but fluff mass. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired. Set aside.
  2. In a large skillet, heat 2 TBS. olive oil until very hot. Add carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and sauté until translucent and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes.
  3. Crumble ground meat and add to vegetable mixture. Cool over medium heat until meat is broken up into small pieces and loses its pink color. Add thyme, until meat is broken up into small pieces and loses its pink color. Add thyme, sage, pinch of salt and pepper and tomato paste. Mix to combine well.
  4. Add beef stock and cook over high heat until mixture is bubbly. Quickly mix in cornstarch paste to thicken mixture. Remove from heat. Taste. Correct seasonings.
  5. Lightly grease a 9”x12” BAKING PAN. Add ground meat mixture and spread evenly over bottom of pan. Sprinkle with grated mozzarella. Top with reserved mashed potato mixture. Spread evenly. Sprinkle with Parmesan and 1 TBS. olive oil.
  6. Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes until top is golden and filling is bubbly.


    Radiant Recovery
    Cookbook

    Naomi's Nutritious and
    Delicious Cookbook
    Sheila's
    Kitchen Recipes


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

    YLDonline is a membership program run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself.


    I enjoyed browsing the manual, it is a long time since I read it and I look forward to reading it more thoroughly again.

    I try to be at chat most Wednesday nights because not only is it fun, but it is also very supportive of my program. I want to do as many things as I can to keep me solid and committed to my recovery. And sometimes chat has a totally new topic with brand new information, those are my favorites!

    Verla

    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.
     


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    **Radiant Recovery Store **

    David manages the Radiant Recovery Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son.




    For Dogs

    For People
    For Horses


    We carry Cetyl M products for people, dogs and horses. It is really fabulous. Here is Karen talking about it for her horse, Apache.

    I'm a huge believer in the Cetyl M stuff now. Apache (my horse) has been on the equine version since the vet told me he was lame on 3 legs and the reason he was so bad tempered was most likely arthritic pain. He was so awful to live with at that point I was considering what to do next. The vet said that, in his opinion, the pain was not so bad we should put the horse down, so I was left with a bad tempered horse that could not be ridden and that I hardly handled. Kathleen got me to try the Cetyl M - and - drum roll - Apache's character has returned to normal. (Grin - he'll always be full of himself and his opinions, but at least he is funny with it now and open to negotiation when our opinions differ) and the vet has suggested he looks sound enough to work (i.e. not lame).

    So, I'm waiting for the ground to dry out enough here in England for me to start lunging him to see if he stays sound. If he does, I will progress to riding him and see what happens from there.

    Its also been a good lesson in recovery for me. He was awful to live with when he hurt, now he is just fine again.

    Karen

    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**


    The Radiant Journal list is a source of helpful information and support with journaling. On this list we talk about how to get started with the journal, how to start listening to our body and why giving it a voice is so important. We also discuss how to use the journal for detective work in our program and, of course, how to make journaling fun! Right now the list is rockin' with people supporting each other and making big discoveries with their journal. So whether you are just starting out or are looking for a recharge in your journaling, come on over and join in the fun!

    Or come to the group page to see all our groups. http://www.radiantrecovery.com/list_serves.htm


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    **Getting Together in Recovery**
    Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.


    April 1, 2008 was the 20th anniversary of my starting the alcohol and drug treatment center in California. Twenty years later and the miracle of that vision has only grown. It is pretty extraordinary to think of something not existing and then starting with 3 staff members who were paid from funds on my credit card for the first two weeks. We put it together with my dream of doing something different.
    It was the beginning of saying there has to be another way. I hadn’t yet thought of sugar sensitivity or any of the things that are now such a part of what we do without even thinking. The world of the web was hardly even part of my consiousness. Golly, I had just purchased a little 68k Mac and was using little 3 inch disks. I didn’t have a PhD yet, no one was talking sugar as a drug, and we began to form these ideas. Then, ideas began to float in. Maybe there was a connection, a biochemical connection between alcoholism and sugar.
    I started listening to people. I starting listening to the whispers in my ear. I remember presenting to the staff one day. I was writing these ideas on a chalk board. Some of them were pretty upset. They felt I was diluting “real” treatment to be suggesting that dealing with diet and sugar could have an effect. One person wrote a letter to our county funders saying how dare I say such things. I had to appear before their board. I did and talked about the vision. I left with an additional grant to implement new programming.

    After 3 years, I knew I had to write about what I was seeing. I knew I needed to go back to school. The next phase started. I began to formalize the theory. I did the PhD, started a new field called Addictive Nutrition, wrote Potatoes Not Prozac, and made the decision to start an online community for support and education. We started with one list, the depression list, and the community forum. Maybe 20 people were involved.

    I held a first seminar in New Mexico up in Abiquiu at Ghost Ranch. Twenty people came. They were all newbies. Twenty newbies and me, heh heh…it was an initiation. A year later we went back, now with some people who were doing the program, whose lives had started to shift. A pattern of hope and possibility was emerging.

    Ranch began to be the heartbeat of the community. Many people came back each year. We had fun, we learned new things, we shared. Mostly we marked the growing we were doing. Connie brought her bagpipes and played Amazing Grace at dawn. We started having shake bars in the morning. We laughed, we played and we matured. The program matured. We began to understand the power of doing the food because we were living it.

    Every ranch was the same and totally different. I taught the core material. I taught the new material which would flow out into the community during the new year. David presented new products in the store. We had potato key chains, we had t-shirts. We introduced new Shake. We had prints from Geraint.

    People listened, talked, shared. We grew. Ten years of ranch and we are trying a few new things.
    As most of you know, we recently did a small seminar here in Maine for Step 7 people who were interested in learning more about the use of guided imagery as a healing tool. We met in this little house by the sea. We walked on the beach. We ate lobster.
    And we visioned what is next for each of us personally and what is next for the community.

    Now we are going to be in Albuquerque. I will be coming back to the Mountains and the light filled with the sea and the sky. We will learn about brain maps and how the food provides a perfect base for neural plasticity. We will learn how to shape and grow programs to support us on the first day and in the 10th or 20th year. The new people will have our skill and expertise. The old people will have the joy of coming back. I will have the joy of a program that continues to bless us all. I hope you will join us.



    ©Kathleen DesMaisons 2008.

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

    Gretel, our webmaster, puts it all together
    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.

    ©2008 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