Hi {!firstname_fix}

It is wonderful to have all of you new people in YLD. Ironically, as you started coming over, we had a major problem with the site that was hosting the home for YLD. It essentially disappeared. Pretty disconcerting. However, you are in good hands with your 7-step leadership and we did some fast stepping. We are going to rebuild a revised home for YLD in the next few weeks. It will reflect the new theme of Your Latest Discovery, Your Latest Dialogue and Your Last Diet. You will be growing a new model with us. And like remodeling a house, we will have some mess along the way. I am confident that you will be patient and humorous with the plaster dust.

Now that it is fall, my creative juices are flowing. I have some fun topics scheduled for the newsletter. You might want to download the newsletter cover we have prepared, print it out and put it on the front of a 3 ring binder. Then you can make up a holder for your newsletters. Click here for a PDF file to print.

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.

A copy of this newsletter may also be found posted on the web at http://www. radiantrecovery.com/weeklynewsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, use the link at the bottom of the page. Do not email me, do not get mad at me, just click on the link and you will be forever removed.

And be sure to visit our Radiant RecoveryŽ website and Community Forum regularly.

Warmly,
Kathleen

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August 22, 2004

** Quote From Kathleen **

There is NO failure in the plan, only more information to help you learn about your body and your self.

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** Testimonial for the Week**

This is how it worked where the Appleton video took place. I am going to send a copy of LSA and the video to my school board. Also, as a teacher, I do the best I can in my own classroom. The other teachers in my school pretty much know what I do and how I feel about sugar etc...but if they are in denial as to their own problems with sweets, they don't really want to hear it. I do this one person at a time. My teaching partner is very supportive of this and does the same thing I do.

This year, I am going to go one step further...not just promoting ONLY healthy snacks, I am going to try to insist that EVERYONE bring a snack every day with protein in it. I can do whatever I can in the classroom, but if the district is still giving the kids less than quality food, then we have a lot more to do. I will try with my parents too, but that is also difficult since most don't even speak English...but I'll do the best I can.

The kids are one of the best methods of getting to them...and I tell them how I feel about the stuff and what they are and aren't allowed to eat in my classroom. Since kindergartners still like/love their teacher, it seems to be helpful!!! I have had parents tell me I have brainwashed their children (in a good way). It's very cool watching a 5 year old tell their parent that a lollipop isn't a healthy snack.

So...I guess where I'm going with this....you can do whatever you can, one teacher at a time...one parent at a time, one child at a time. You have already planted seeds.

Elaine

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

I have been thrilled to see that my special offer is getting you mobilized. I PROMISE you will be thrilled by what we are developing. And thank you for your patience while we get things set. And yes, I know some of the links you are trying out don't work. The diet.com site is dead. How apropos. New life for the bigger picture on its way. Come to chats. Monday night for questions, Wednesday night for me being creative. (smile)

One other change. YLDonline has been a lifetime membership program. I will continue this option through August. Starting in September, memberships will be annual. If you have purchased a membership by September, 2004, it will be lifetime. After that, it will renew each year.

Come join us and hear about this success!

http://www.radiantrecovery.com/YLD_signup.htm

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**Radiant Ambassadors**

Today I met a High School friend and her husband for lunch. They were in town to help their son move. We had been out of touch for 15 years. I wanted to know about her son. It turned out he loved white bread and had a problem with binge drinking. I jumped in. I had both ambassador cards ready. As we got in my car after lunch, I handed each a copy of LSA (my own and a library copy). They instantly saw their son in the first sentence. When I dropped them off at his apartment, my friend said she was going to buy and read LSA and SARP and begin cooking program- friendly meals. In a couple of weeks, he'll arrive at their home for a 2-month visit. She's confident he'll want to read both books and begin the program immediately.

Next, I headed over to my doctor's office. As I drew close, I noticed "Bound To Be Read" and stopped in to buy a copy of LSA for my doctor. A sign said that Kathleen would be doing a book signing there on Tuesday. I asked for a written notice of that and was given a newsletter. The book was in a strong plastic bag. I put 6 of each Ambassador card in the book. I circled the book signing on the newsletter and put that in the bag, too. When I stepped into the doctor's waiting room, there were 2 copies of SARP on the shelf. I handed the bag to the receptionist and told her it was a gift book for the doctor.

Pleased with my day,
Elizabeth

If you love the program, consider joining the ambassador group. We are having a blast!

Come find us among the Online Groups

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**David's Corner **

Ok, we haven't finished the tofu making experiment so I want to talk about fish oil instead. Many of you LOVE the fish oil but have been frustrated by having to carry a bottle with you. Seems like you all mirror a national concern, so Nordic Naturals has added a new product to their line - fish oil in individual packets. Come check it out. And I am not sure you all noticed that we added Kosher oil as well. And did you know that they were awarded the 2003 Gold Medal Award for Best Tasting Cod Liver Oil by the American Tasting Institute (Quality Institute International)? The more I learn about this company the more I love it.

Here are the things the oils help with

Heart health
Brain function
Cancer
Depression
Environmental toxins
Joints
Pregnancy
Immune function
Diabetes

and way more. Go read the research It will stop you in your tracks and help you know why we carry these products.

Please send questions and suggestions for items you might like to see in our store. YOU are building our store. Tell me what you want and we will sort it out.

Thanks
David

And of course, we have something for everybody in our store

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**Featured Topic**
Entitlement and Blame
by Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.

Many people ask me how they *know* that they are on step 7. Is it a date, hit detox, and then wham, there you are? Is it having a perfect program, every step clean and organized and sorted? How can someone on Step 7 muck around or be sloppy with the food journal? Do they have to revert? If they wobble, do they *lose* their status?

Now, what I am going to say here may surprise you. But step 7 is really about a state of being rather than a destination. Step 7 is affectionately called the *getting a life* step, but really, that hardly defines it. It is about how you meet the world and it is radically different from how the world was before you started the program. Let me walk you through the transformation.

I know from lots and lots of experience that the hallmarks of untreated sugar sensitivity are what I call entitlement and blame. We feel done unto. My husband, my boss, my mother, my children, my life, my stress, my health *made me*. You feel victimized by circumstance. It made you be this way. If he hadn't....I wouldn't be this way. You do not take responsibility for what happens around you because you do not feel empowered. You feel helpless in the face of things happening. And you blame the outside world for things not working.

At the same time, because you feel victimized you feel you are entitled to things. Well, I deserve to be...because..they owe me. Often this is the company owes me because I am poor and work hard and they make lots of money. I hear this as I deserve to not have to pay for the program because I am poor and am entitled to it for free.

These feelings, are biochemically induced. Now, that sounds pretty outrageous doesn't it? However, these are the very feelings that change with the program. Working with your journals helps you to see connections, and something called consequence. If I eat this, this happens. No one does it to me. There is a connection between what I do and what happens. You start making little connections..and over time they grow. As you get more steady, you can make more powerful connections.

Yes, my husband is abusive, but I stay here. Things like that. You start seeing yourselves as players rather than victims. And even more striking, when people critique you, you have this remarkable detachment. You take what is real, own it and are even grateful for the feedback rather than being devastated by it. For example, early in the program, if I offer a suggestion, not even a critique, but a simple reflection that perhaps eating a potato the size of a football might not be the best option, the person who started the program 3 days ago is either brushed or outraged that I do not understand their special situation and they go off in a huff or unsubscribe from the program for a year. If I say that to a person in balance, they say *Oh my, whatever was I thinking about. Thank you.*

I listen for this change. Sometimes it comes early. But most often it is the change that tells me most about Step 7 consciousness. One of my leadership people makes a mistake. We have a code for mistakes called the FANTASTIC! code. They say, *Oh fantastic, let me go clean that one up*. We laugh and it is no bigger than an error to be corrected. Or someone wobbles, and I say, *Hey, how about a sabbatical while you steady up there?* and they say...*yah, yah, let me go catch my breath and tighten up my plan. My timing is off, I am eating out too much.* And they do. Now let me tell you, working and playing with people in this energy is beyond comparison.

You all feel it drifting through. Those of you on the more senior lists drink from the well. Those of you just starting know this is what you want. This is part of radiance, this humor, this joy, this resilience. It is way more than no longer yelling at your kids. It is getting a life. No more blame, lots of taking responsibility. No more entitlement, just humble willingness to work, show up and participate. Pretty nice from where I sit.

ŠKathleen DesMaisons 2004.