|
|
|
|
January 27, 2014 Hi {!firstname_fix} We are working our way through getting our *to do* lists up to date and settled. All the information for Radiant Ranch is now online. We have negotiated a great rate with the hotel that includes breakfast. They are thrilled that we are coming and the new service manager is excited to design special meals for us. She has read the book and is stoked. The new class schedule is up and you will see I have added some new classes. We are working on getting the whole process clearer and simplified. I think you will be thrilled with the changes we are making in YLD. The Older, Rounder, Willing class is fabulous and is really showing the way for how weight loss actually works long term. It certainly has been a process of discerning how to best guide you in a way that will change your life. I feel as if some deep changes are taking place. The energy is streaming faster than I can get the logistics in place for it. I trust your patience in the process. These classes will begin Wednesday, January 29, 2014. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:
These classes will begin Wednesday, February 5, 2014. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:
The class schedule is online. 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. 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. Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery website and Community Forum regularly. Warmly, Kathleen **********************************************************************
**Quote From Kathleen ** There is NO failure in this plan, only more information to help you learn about your body and yourself. **********************************************************************
**Testimonial of the Week ** *seeing snowy owl on the way home *fun getaway with DH *free hotel, using points! Yay! Hi everyone, I figured I'd just tell you how I managed an overnight, food-wise. It worked out really well this time. Breakfast before we left Snack in the car - teff crepe Lunch at an indoor farmer's market - I brought a sandwich on brown bread with lettuce and avocado, and bought some goat cheese to add to that (buying goat cheese was my plan). It was an early lunch and I wasn't too hungry, so this was enough. Snack at the hotel - I brought oatcakes, protein bars, muffins and had a muffin and a protein bar. Supper at the hotel - I brought leftovers from the night before, and we bought some whole grain bread and spinach and Greek goat yogurt (I love goat-milk products, obviously...) at the grocery store, plus some other things since DH didn't bring food LOL. Breakfast - not included at hotel, so I had 2 packs of instant oatmeal (used the coffee machine to heat the water), a banana and yogurt, and a muffin. Snack after swimming - my protein shake and oatcakes. Lunch at the food court - a sandwich with the rest of the spinach, whole grain bread, the rest of the goat cheese, bought fries at my favourite place for a treat (they leave the skin on!), and shared a very large orange with DH. Now I'm home, and just about to put away the rest of the food I brought. It was really a no-brainer to do this - I had the browns frozen and ready to go. DH laughed a bit at my bag of food - more food than clothes! But I was the one laughing at him (kindly) when he was hungry and I had my supper all ready to go LOL! Pamela **********************************************************************
**Radiant Life ** Hi Amy and Pamela, It is interesting to see what folks do for RR food when traveling. We travel a lot, usually to Colorado to rent a house with friends and go skiing or hiking. In general, the hardest thing to find when traveling is the brown so I take several options for that-- bread, crackers, a can of beans or lentils, oatmeal, etc. I always take a cooler with breakfast stuff--eggs, cheese, cottage cheese and oatmeal(in a plastic bag with cinnamon and nuts and salt already in it). Tea, skim milk. Lunch--whole rye bread, packets of salmon and tuna, almonds, apples. Sometimes ham and cheese and good mustard. Baby carrots. That way I can pack a lunch for hiking, etc. or have something at the cabin. Triscuits or rye crisp, cheese for snacking. Also corn chips and salsa, which everybody likes after hiking. I always eat a snack at 4:30 pm because dinner times can be unpredictable with a group of folks. Dinner--usually each family takes turns doing dinner or we go out to a restaurant. When I make the dinner I have tacos or hamburgers (whole wheat buns) with all the trimming, or sometimes make a type of stew like white chili or stovetop cassoulet. (All RR friendly). And we have salad and I have a piece of fruit for dessert and I buy cookies or pie for them. When they cook I eat what I can of their meal and supplement with stuff of my own. By now everyone is used to my dietary needs so they usually ask me ahead of time to plan their meal. They also know that DH can't eat onions and adjust for him too. What great friends!! Restaurants usually have a protein and a veggie, sometimes I eat a brown ahead of time. It's pretty much a routine, these days, and I seem to do just fine with it. Melissa **********************************************************************
**Radiant Ambassadors **  There is a national radio show in the UK which doesn't shy away from things that matter. Here is how Jeremy Vine approached sugar and its effects recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqEx3Zo5kS8&feature=youtu.be I have written to the programme outlining how Radiant Recovery has helped me. If anyone wants the contact details, let me know. You never know! Selena selenas@blueyonder.co.uk Come join us if you are excited about spreading the news. **********************************************************************
**How I Found Radiant Recovery ** Hi, My name is Nicola and I am from near Manchester in England UK. I have been at Step 1 for 16 days. I have almond milk, porridge oats and pp for my breakfast everyday and I am finding that my moods are steadier ( they can dip and I have suffered from depression in the past). I don't drink alcohol as it has an extreme effect on me and makes me very depressed. I am 49 years old and I have finally decided to listen to my body and try to give it good healthy food when it needs it. I read PnP 3 weeks ago and I was absolutely amazed at how much sense it made to me. In the past I would often skip meals and then binge on unrefined carbs... NOT GOOD! This has periodically taken away my energy and confidence and at times has spiraled into depression. I am hoping that by using this programme I will be able to sustain a calm and consistent life steering away from the reclusive or chaotic episodes I have experienced in the past. Having breakfast with protein every day is becoming a routine which I enjoy :) my family are happy too because I am smiling and laughing more. Looking forward to the course. **********************************************************************
** Radiant Recovery® Store ** David manages the Radiant Recovery® Store. He is also Kathleen's oldest son. 
Many of you have asked my about the Safe Place meditation CD. What is it? Why do we do it? What is its history? I asked Kathleen if she might write up something for me to give you. Here is what she wrote:I first started using guided imagery twenty five years ago when I was working in a prison in Rhode Island. I was working with a group of guys who were sex offenders. They had committed pretty serious crimes. It was profound for me to listen to their stories, to experience their wounding. It taught me to see underneath the outside stories. These guys were not interested in doing talk stuff. They had been there and done that for many years. So we wanted to do something that bypassed all the cognitive stuff and just went down into heart healing. The Safe Place meditation was the first meditation we taught them. It served as an anchor for all the other work. Basically, this meditation helps us to relearn the FEELING of safety. Many of us grew up in a household where we did not feel safe. We lost a connection to that feeling. So even though we may have acted like we were fine in the world, inside our hearts had a hole. This meditation starts to heal that. The safe place meditation is the anchor for all the work we are doing. First you get settled and quiet. This in itself starts to shift you into a heart place. The rhythm of the music entrains your heart and slows it down. The image or sense of the light gives you a concrete way to visualize being filled and held by something greater than yourself. The experience of breathing the light helps you to focus on your breath. Imagining the light breathing you gives you an experience of something loving taken care of you. Each helps you focus on your breathing and this quiets you and settles you. When you are quiet, we ask an image of being in a safe place to come. This may be something totally unexpected. This is the first exposure to inviting your Psyche to speak with you. Images are the language of the heart. The image gives you a concrete symbol to work with. Once you see it (or sense it), we ask you to experience how it feels to be there. We want you to feel concrete feelings on a sensate level. How it looks, how it sounds, the textures, the smells. And most important how you feel when you are there. Noticing how you feel when you are there gives you a way to learn what feeling safe means for you. It gives you a way to experience the body sensation of safety. Most of us do not know this feeling when we start the process. We may have a memory of it, or we may have nothing to draw from. This meditation gives us that feeling. And the feeling, not the content becomes the anchor for all the other work. If you feel safe, you can begin to open up. I invite you to learn this tool with us. Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen ** Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Citrus and Mascarpone
For more great program-friendly recipes, check out our cookbook in the store and visit our online Radiant Recipes site. **********************************************************************
**Radiant YLD ** Absolutely loved this post from Linda. If you are ready to get serious about sensible weight loss too, come and join in the fun! Steph Hello! No gym today because Wednesday is the day I spend with my mother. We both look forward to the day together. I am taking the Older/Rounder/Willing class and have made a commitment to 30 minutes of movement every day. Today I did the floor (core) exercises that I learned 2 years ago in physical therapy. It felt good to stretch my muscles in a new way. I am also re-establishing a second daily meditation time. I am ready to get serious about sensible weight loss. Linda B If you would like to join, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Radiant Conversations ** We have a new portal for the Conversations program. Come check it out here. Conversations chat has been fun. We have a number of new people so we are learning the art of speaking about *empowerment* with people in all different stages of recovery. It is pretty exciting and actually is one of the highlights of my week. Sure would love to have you join us. If you would like to join us, you can do that below. Join YLD Weight Loss Now: click here - $99 Join Conversations 2011 Now: click here - $99 Join Both YLD and Conversations Now: click here - $149 Current YLD members wish to Upgrade to Both, click here - $49 If you are not a member, come and join us if you want to be a part of the latest and greatest or just have some plain ol' fun! **********************************************************************
**Our Online Groups ** Hi, I'm Gretel, and I'm a member of the radiantrecovery group. I had been sober with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous for 8 years when I found Radiant Recovery 14 years ago. At that time I was suffering severe sugar hangovers that rivaled any I’d ever had from alcohol and was sliding into a depression. I commented one night at a meeting that I might as well go back to my drug of choice, alcohol, if I was going to feel that bad. A wise lady came up to me and suggested I might be interested in Kathleen’s book, Potatoes Not Prozac. I read it in one day, felt Kathleen was speaking directly to me, and embraced the program because I intuitively knew it would add a whole new dimension to my recovery. The radiantrecovery list was set up as a support for people who have already given up alcohol and/or drugs or who would like to in connection with the Radiant Recovery program. We are a very warm, compassionate and caring group who have known the depths of despair that addiction brings. We are grateful for the understanding Kathleen has provided us, that our addiction is biochemically based, and for the nutritional solution she offers to help us in our recovery. We would love to have you join us. **********************************************************************
**Another Look at Learned Helplessness ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
When you get hurt as a child, you get a big beta-endorphin response to protect you. It literally keeps you alive. And then as an adult you have intuitively found ways to recreate *safety* with sugar. Your body *remembers* that beta-endorphin means *safe* so you become very emotionally attached to your *comfort foods.* Sugar-sensitive people are more attached to these foods, as we well know. And sugar-sensitive people who have experienced childhood abuse are even more vulnerable. But here is what is even more intriguing. The body is flooded with beta-endorphin in the time of trauma or inescapable stress. These can be bad things happening like an accident, a death, a horrid boss, abusive situations or even traumatic stimuli like having your utilities turned off or your credit taken away. If you experienced the protection of the beta-endorphin flooding when you were little, these later adult experiences will recreate that powerful feeling of safety – even though on the outside it rationally seems as if these things are bad. You are drawn to them for the biochemical solace that comes with the release of beta-endorphin. Learned Helplessness So even the things that seem like they are really *bad* are actually hooking into a very old biochemical pattern of beta-endorphin protection. And if bad things happen enough, you will feel (just as it did when you were little) like there is no way out. You will feel overwhelmed, inadequate and without options – this is learned helplessness. The most incredible thing is that these feelings are biochemical. They are beta-endorphin mediated. When you use sugars, you are comforted for a little. Life seems more possible, options seems bigger. But you can’t find your way out because the optimism and hopefulness only lasts for a little bit – while the sugar induced beta-endorphin lasts. When it goes away and when you are in beta-endorphin withdrawal, the helplessness gets worse. A Way Out You stay in a downward spiral of hopelessness. The good news is that the Radiant Recovery plan can help you to get out of the destruction of learned helplessness. But in dealing with the bigger story, you have to make some adjustments. If you really want to be in the world in a new way, you will need to be very diligent about creating experiences to evoke the slow, healing beta-endorphin rather than the quick spikes that come from sugar. When you start getting better with the food, you reduce the priming from sugar. This is a good start. But unless you *add in* emotional experiences to recreate beta-endorphin (like EXERCISE, prayer, meditation, dancing, puppies, kittens, good sex (relational intimacy), good food, etc.), your body will be seeking, seeking something to re-activate the beta-endorphin *safety* which you connect to being okay. You will drift back to old patterns which mirror the trauma. So you will pick a fight with a cop ;-), your husband, partner or mother. You will *forget* to pay your bills on time, you will double-book appointments, or not pay your taxes. This is NOT a function of being screwed up so much as an unconscious attempt to find solace and safety. Unless you reform the patterns, learned helplessness will follow you tenaciously. And you reform the brain patterns by changing the food. Take care of the food and the rest will take care of itself. Thanks for reading! If you know someone who could benefit from this, feel free to forward it to them. Not a subscriber yet? Like what you have read? Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you: http://www.radiantrecovery.com Until next time!
Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together:
Gretel, our webmaster, puts it all together. David runs the Radiant Recovery® Store. Selena provides the weekly Ambassadors column. Steph provides the Your Last Diet column. ©2013 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, use this attribution: "By Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. of Radiant Recovery®", and notify kathleen@radiantrecovery.com of the location. Please visit the Radiant Recovery® website at http://www.radiantrecovery.com for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction. 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 |
