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And now we are entering this special time between Halloween and the New Year. Historically it was a time when most of us just stepped on a sugar slide and went down the tubes for a couple of months. Now we do it differently. And what a joy that is. I hope you will join us in our holiday offerings. These classes will begin Wednesday, November 5, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Radiant Store Tour (1 week) 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. This is his first teaching experience, so you can show your support for the work he does to keep you happy. Handling the Holidays: Thanksgiving (1 week) is a special class to help you prepare for the holidays in a centered and reflective way. We love this class. It is a great way to get out of being frantic and scattered. I always look forward to this class because I love Thanksgiving so much. I hope you will join us. These classes will begin Wednesday, November 12, 2008. Please click on the name of the class you wish to join and it will take you to the registration page: Radiant Step Two (1 week) 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. Radiant Step Five (1 week) is one of our favorites. Learn the art of whole grains. Get lots of information that you won't find anywhere else. I picked the brains of one of the world's leading *brown* experts for this class. If you are on disability or low income (your household income is less that $1000 a month), you may take classes for free if you get certified. I have put the guidelines for certification on the class schedule page. 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 **********************************************************************
November 3, 2008 ** Quote From Kathleen **
You don't have to work through your self-esteem and take care of feelings your whole life. You just do the food and the feelings will take care of themselves. *********************************************************************
** Testimonial for the Week**
So how did everyone do with Halloween? We had a really nice day and the rain cleared in time for trick or treating which was great. We had a little theme going here as both of the girls chose Star Wars characters. My mom is a retired costume designer so she goes all out on their costumes. Laura was Yoda and Alex was Queen Amidala. These are some of the best costumes yet. After dinner, the girls got in their costumes, posed for some pictures, and off they went for trick or treating. My mom and I hung out on the front porch passing out fun little toys until it got too cold and then we moved inside. I have a selection of things I've ordered the past few years from Oriental Trading. This year the big hits were the mini paddle ball games. Interestingly, the big group of teenagers were really excited about them. The little, little boys down the street were excited about the bouncy balls and spider rings. One year I gave out tattoos, but it seemed like I wasn't giving anything so that felt awkward, so now I go for something bigger. When the girls returned, they counted their candy and we settled on a price. We buy their candy from them. Laura cracks me up. She can't manage to give it all up when sitting looking at a pile of candy, but each year her save stash gets smaller and smaller. This year she saved 2 pieces and explained to me how she'll eat them with lunch so that she's not too wound up for bedtime and so that she eats it with protein. Laura has been struggling some with lunch at school. She's talking to me a lot about how other kids have juice boxes and sugar things and junk food in their lunches and it is all said in a somewhat wistful way. I think we may need to talk about how to make her lunch more exciting for her so that she's feeling abundance. Alex doesn't blink, she just happily adds the money to her wallet. She's so sure that this is the right course for her. I did hear a kid ask her if she went trick or treating since she's "not allowed to have candy" and I saw Alex's back get really straight with tension. She doesn't like people thinking she's not allowed candy or that she doesn't like candy, but she hasn't quite figured out how to explain it. She ultimately said, "I sell the candy to my mom and then I can go buy something awesome." I was glad I kept quiet because I think she did a great job on her own. So, another great Halloween here. I hope those of you who celebrated also had fun. I'd love to hear about it. Emily ********************************************************************
**Radiant Ambassadors** Hey all- Well, today I passed out a couple of the RR cards. Yes! It was fun and kind of funny. I've been going to some Al-anon meetings in my area and really getting a lot out of them. Anyhow, today I finally got up some courage to talk with a few other folks who regularly attend. One of the women asked for my number after the meeting so we could meet at another al-anon thingy in a neighboring town. Well I had the RR cards in my backpack and just wrote my cell phone number down on one of the cards. LOL. Then we got talking about the RR program a bit. Both of the women I met after the meeting knew about RR. One of them had tried it for 3 years, apparently, and then had quit. She said something about loving ice cream too much. (sigh). Well, it was a fun and new experience for me talking about RR with people outside the RR community. I look forward to doing more of this. -John Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. ********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen**
Pumpkin Pecan PieIngredients:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat a 9" pie pan with cooking spray. 2. Combine all ingredients except chopped pecans and topping and stir until well blended. Add chopped pecans and mix well. Pour into prepared pie pan. 3. Bake 35- 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing. Serve with topping. 4. To prepare topping, beat heavy cream on high speed with an electric mixer until very thick and just beginning to peak. Add vanilla and pie spice and continue to beat until cream is stiff and holds a peak. Kathleen's Baking Mix:
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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**
YLDonline is a membership program run directly by Kathleen DesMaisons herself. Is this a good time to join? Of course! It is the best time. This is the time of year we have the most fun 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. ********************************************************* ***********
**Radiant Recovery Store **
David manages the Radiant Recovery Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son.
Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. ********************************************************* ***********
**Our Online Groups**
The Radiant Step One list is a great place to learn the nuances of breakfast, build a strong foundation for the rest of the Steps, and find how helpful it is to share our journey with others. It is great for new people and those who have been on the program a long time. Sharing helps everyone. The awesome thing is we all, Step 1 or Step 7, eat breakfast every single day. How cool is that? We'd love it for you to Sign up: We love new members! ********************************************************************
**Our Leadership**
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. As you all know, we recently finished Euroranch. Because ranch is such a wonderful time to make personal connections, we often use it as an opportunity to do leadership development. We have made a number of changes in leadership in the last few weeks and I thought it would be fun to give you a little window into our inner workings. We have a little over 70 people who work as volunteers in leadership. There are 30 teams working with more than 150 lists. Each step list has a team and then some of the other lists combine into a team. So we have a kitchen team that works with introduction to cooking, working on a limited funds and recipes. We do training for all the team members. Each team has a liaison, the senior person who is responsible for the list. And the whole group talks a lot about how to make the list an exciting and safe place for the members. The liaisons all meet on a liaison list and come together once a week to share in a chat. We do two leadership chats each week - one for the folks in Europe and one for the Americans and Australians. We also train liaisons on administrative logistics. And even more important, we do a lot of ongoing training. Over time, this means that the liaisons have a lot of knowledge about the program, about the folks on their lists and about being a servant leader. This system also gives us a lot of accountability. How are things going, how are the members doing, how are the people who are posting doing over on another list? How can we be most supportive? Now, sometimes, we set boundaries. And sometimes we have people who are not used to boundaries and don't like not being able to post whatever and whenever they want. We do not allow temper tantrums or flaming or something delicately referred to as TMI [too much information]. This happens when someone is venting about some one else and all the details are not necessary for the whole list. And we ask people to stay focused on the program. Sometimes this creates angst in someone who KNOWS that a particular supplement is THE answer and is furious when we say, "nope, sorry but you can't talk about it." Those of you who have been around for a while know exactly what I am referring to. The best of this is the tone of the community. The worst of it is that the people who are the recipients of such boundaries can get mad, go off, start new sites, bad mouth me, call me a controlling bitch and such. But we are ok with this. It comes with the territory. Sugar sensitive people not doing the food can be drama pups as we all know. And I believe that the *control* creates a healing climate. We also have created some norms about respecting the privacy of individudal lists. You may have noticed that the liaisons have talked about this recently on some lists. This came up because someone repeated some information heard on one list and reported to another. We said, "be mindful please." Now, our leadership folks do talk to each other about what is happening on the lists. This is essentially a form of supervision. How do we learn to handle highly volatile, moody, complex people in crisis? How can we be present without being enabling? How can we avoid splitting when someone says, "well mom said....." So if someone is acting out on depression, and then goes over to fitness, the liaison has a heads up. Our liaisons are very grateful that their leader used to run a mental health center and does not get flapped by addiction or complexity. So, a lot goes on behind the scenes, a lot. But what this means is that your experience can be seamless. You get to have support and clarity and a consistent message. I hope this helps a little. We are always interested in your opinions. ©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 Geraint Smith |
