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January 26, 2015 Hi {!firstname_fix} It’s funny, today I was the grocery store and it felt as if everything was very still, but I could feel the stirring that spring was coming. It was very strange. When I came out of the store, I noticed that the tree was covered with tiny buds. I thanked it for singing out to me. I love the rhythm of this time of year. Never quite know what weather we will have. Last week we had snow, freezing rain, freezing fog, sunny, cold, warm and everything in between. Cold at night, I have to sort out who to bring in and stash in crates and who is warm and fuzzy enough to stay out in the wood chips in the kennels. Everyone seems fine with it and Ronan and Pepper don’t care since they just get on my bed and sleep with me. I love this time of year. No new classes will be starting this week. This class will begin Wednesday, February 4, 2015. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:
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 ** Addiction is a disease of isolation, recovery is a process that flourishes in community. **********************************************************************
**Testimonial of the Week ** Hi Kathleen, Thank you for checking in. I am enjoying the newsletters each week, especially the bit with new research information. I haven't been to the forum yet but am in the Facebook group. My husband and I have spent the month finding a routine that centers around meal times and encouraging healthy habits (we're both working on step 3). It's already making a positive impact on our lives. Thank you for all you have done and do for the group. We felt so crazy, out of control, and hopeless before we read your book. Now I feel like I'm waking from a very long dream (nightmare?) and living my life for the first time. From what I read we're not even close to the 'radiant' part yet, which makes me excited for what's to come. Amanda **********************************************************************
**Interesting Bits of Science ** I went over to PubMed and put *sugar addiction* into the search criteria. There were a lot of articles - 739 to be exact. One article to be published in May - *Addiction to sugar and its link to health morbidity: a primer for newer primary care and public health initiatives in Malaysia.* Which says, *Research in the field of addiction medicine has revealed the addictive potential of high levels of sugar intake. Preexisting health promotion strategies could benefit from the integration of the concept of sugar addiction. A targeted intervention could yield more positive results in health outcomes within the country.* It is sort of starting to see what is happening across not just the US, but across the world. I was also struck by the number of articles referencing *food addiction.* I find that term very troubling. Earlier this month I received a letter from a colleague of mine who followed me into the field of Addictive Nutrition. She is doing a textbook on Food Addiction and asked me if I would consider being a contributor and do 2 chapters. I thought about it a lot. I made the decision to decline. I thought I would share my note with all of you here. It was a pretty big decision on my part. I think you will understand it: "Lovely to hear from you. You certainly have created a public awareness and are held in high esteem for your work. I have great respect for your energy and vision with all of this. I think I am going to decline your offer on this. It may not make sense to you, but I actually have a pretty major problem with the concept of *food addiction*...I know this is an in thing now and is certainly growing as a way of thinking. But for me it runs counter to my key belief in food as healer. I don’t think that pathologizing it via the DSM is a useful tool. Ninety percent of the work I do is trying to antidote the cultural message that people are somehow *bad* for looking to sugars and fats for the comfort effect (and then getting hooked). Mixing up sugars and fats with *food* is a pretty big leap. And I certainly do not agree that cravings are a pathology. Nor do I think it is particularly difficult to *treat.* It might be with a model of pathology, but in my experience with thousands and thousands of people, I have found people to be excited, enthusiastic and highly successful over a long period of time. It is ironic that 20 years ago I was out on the fringe with the ideas of a connection between food and addiction. Now, I guess, I will be out on the fringe for an alternative reason. (smile) I love that you wrote, and love the opportunity to define what my position is with all of this. It is very powerful for me." I think you will get a sense of my willingness to stand behind my beliefs on this. One other science thing to think about...this is a little off topic from sugar addiction, but I think it is really important. I am sure you have been hearing a lot about the measles outbreak from Disneyland and the pitch that it is a problem with children not being vaccinated. There is another side to the story and I think you might find it interesting to read it. http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/disney-measles-outbreak-mousetrap-ignorance **********************************************************************
** Radiant Recovery® Store ** Here is a note Emily wrote about the children's fish oil capsules: 
Thanks! Alex wanted more information. She really wanted to know why she should take it, so I read her most of the article in the resource center and then she ASKED to take a 2nd capsule today. She took one in juice and another I just broke onto a spoon and she downed it and then took a sip of water. She said that way was better. Knowledge is power! If I'd suggested she take it straight yesterday, I'd have been shot down, but with information she was willing to try. (smile) She said she wanted to take it because it could "help my brain be smart and help my allergies." Laura said "You mean this could make me not have scratchy skin?!" Emily 
I love our fish oil products. I love working with Nordic Naturals to bring them to you. And I see that Kathleen is giving Pet Cod Liver Oil to the dogs and they sure have shiny coats!I thought you might be interested to hear what research is being done with Nordic Naturals oil:
Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen ** Here is a recipe from Maggie. I have made this and can tell you it is YUMMY. And I don't even like cauliflower! ROASTED CAULIFLOWER
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**Radiant YLD ** Last week at chat we talked about the name of this membership program. Since we talk about so much more than just *losing weight* I asked the chatters if they thought it would make sense to revise the name. We had a very lively dialogue and what emerged was the consensus that these discussions are about this being your LAST diet, as in never diet again, never be caught in that mentality, and define yourself in a different way. It is a pretty mighty concept. And what is even more fun is that the conversation is continuing on the list. If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Radiant Living ** We started talking about the *great lunch challenge* that had started the week before. People were posting their lunches online. What started out as a functional planning discussion turned to the emotional content of being cared for, and having someone fix us lunch. It was an unexpected turn and pretty powerful. It is hard to convey the power of the conversations we have, but if you want to share with a group of like-minded people who want something more, this is the place to do it. If you would like to join us in Radiant Living, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Sleeping Your Way to Radiance ** Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
When I did the poll of your reactions to the newsletter, one of the things you said was you wanted new articles every week (smile). And I do understand the sentiment...and we have a lot of new people this month. Some of the articles we have done are what I call the core sentiments here in the community. This is one of them. I want the newbies to read it. I think it is comforting. Bear with me. When I first started doing my own plan, I thought that "getting" the program meant doing it fully, being diligent, following the instructions and not messing with it. I still held the belief that being disciplined and focused were the only ways to go. Now I am not so sure that these are the criteria for succeeding with the program. Now I am convinced that something else is operating, something a little more subtle and unexpected. I believe that showing up and being in relationship to your body will help you more than being tough on yourself. Let me outline how I got to thinking this way. I used to lead a ten-week guided imagery series called “Finding Healing From Within.” Each week, we would do a guided meditation. After the meditation, the participants would draw what they experienced, and the group would share their feelings. Sometimes a group member would sleep through every single meditation and make up a drawing because they had no memory of anything in the meditation. This made me really uncomfortable. Was I failing these people? Were they failing the group? Were they in denial? How could they sleep through my wonderful imagery? At the end of ten weeks, we reviewed the progress of everyone in the group. How had they changed? How did they feel? Surprisingly, time and time again, the sleepers would have as remarkable a change as the doers. Not once, not twice, but every single time. Ten weeks of sleeping through what I thought was the healing part of the work and they would report a profound sense of inner healing. They didn't work it. They slept through the meditation -- at least on a conscious level. But they were there. They showed up and they drew the pictures and they talked about their process. This experience taught me something. The act of showing up creates change. In fact, it creates powerful change even if on the outside it may not seem so. Making a commitment to healing starts a process -- a chain of events that is much deeper than we may think. When you vow, "I will get better," when you begin to hold the idea of being willing to do whatever it takes, then something starts to shift. Given this experience with my “sleepers,” I looked again at the effect that dalliance vs. diligence might have on the seven steps of healing sugar sensitivity. I started looking at my personal process of doing the steps. What was happening when I was playing around with them a little instead of being diligent? Could those times be like the sleeping times in my guided imagery class? Could change be happening in spite of what seemed to be my own inattention? I looked in my food journal and discovered something astounding. When I was attending to the steps, listening to my body, writing in my journal, even if I wasn't doing the food plan perfectly, change was happening. I was making progress even when I was being kinda sloppy. Think about those sleepers. The sleepers were there in the room with the rest of the group. Every week. They woke up, drew pictures with the group, and talked about sleeping. And when I showed up, kept my food journal, and wrote about sleeping through my food plan, I was still engaged with my body and working the steps. I was talking with myself about what was happening. I was not criticizing myself for food sleeping. I was simply noticing. And I kept coming back to the journal. I kept coming back to my body and my healing. The nature of the sugar-sensitive person is to give in when things get difficult. Like the C57 mice, you crouch in the corner and think you can't stick to your plan. Your biochemistry and your coping behaviors have supported learned helplessness. You hit hard stuff and you felt overwhelmed, unable to follow through the way you hoped. A thousand failed diets from the past reinforced these feelings. As soon as you catch yourself "sleeping," you say to yourself, "See, you did it again!" So you run away from the program, run away from yourself. You crouch and hide -- and then you abandon everything you have learned. This time it will be different, because knowing you are sugar sensitive lets you finally, finally understand the nature of who you are. Knowing you are sugar sensitive lets you shift the perspective from feeling bad about a thousand "failed" diets to being open to a solution. Think about that. You are tenacious. You keep going, you search and continue. You may be impulsive and impatient, but you can be and are committed to finding a solution. This program helps you use your tenacity in a new way. Because you finally understand why other diets haven't worked, you can start to make choices. You can change the voices that say, "I know this won't really work" into "Hmmmm, let's sort this out," "Why am I bored?" "Why don't I like doing the journal?" "Why do I sabotage my efforts?" Asking these questions becomes a part of your healing. They are not the same old tapes you have run about your inadequacy. They may be the same questions, but they are asked from a different perspective. Say to yourself, "I will do whatever it takes to heal this. I will give it time, money, energy, whatever it takes. Taking care of my food will be at the top of my list, not after my job, or after my family, or maybe when I get to it. But at the top of my list every day." You have made these affirmations a thousand times. But generally you make them in your head. You think about your affirmations, but you do not usually put the affirmations into action. What would it really mean to "do whatever it takes?" **********************************************************************
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. mosaic contributes to the Notes from the Forum column. ©2015 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 |
