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April 18, 2016 Hi {!firstname_fix} It has been an exciting week for me. David celebrated his 50th birthday on the 14th and we convened a family gathering. His brother, sister, dad and step mom have all been here. We have just been flowing into assorted configurations. We started with breakfast together squashed into my tiny kitchen with the three rescue dogs who thought cooked breakfast smelled wonderful. Then the girls went out on a scouting trip to find a frame for the collage Jen had made. We laughed and looked at many frames and many configurations. Stopped at Starbucks on the way home. The boys went off on a hunt for supplies, including water jugs. Later in the evening we went out to a Brazilian restaurant that brings meat on skewers to the table. Many meats, LOL. We laughed a lot. Then came home and shared memories and recollections of 5 decades of David's life. It was a lovely evening. We went to a baseball game on Saturday night. It rained most of the day but cleared in the evening. It was really fun. We were cold, I learned a lot about planning for spring nights in NM. And next time, I will insist that my sons bring a glove if we are sitting behind 3rd base LOL. Those cracking fast foul balls unnerve me. I am filled with gratitude to have a family so filled with love and appreciation for one another. We all have worked hard to create it and it is such a joy to come together. I have just a couple of things to share about things to think about: If you are wondering where you can ask questions about things outside of the *step* issues, please join us on the community forum. There are lots of free-ranging topics. In addition, we will be re-establishing our *information* forum over the next week, so you can have access to questions and answers as you are sorting out logistics. I will be sharing more about this in next week's newsletter, so stay tuned. If you are planning to come to Ranch, please remember that our negotiated rate with the hotel only lasts until Wednesday. So if you haven't booked yet, can you please get on it. Let me know if you have any questions. I am postponing the serotonin class for a couple of weeks so we can catch up from the other classes. If you have signed up and are waiting, we will let you know when we are set to go. Thank you for understanding. This class will begin Wednesday, April 20, 2016. Please Signup and it will take you to the registration page:
This class will begin Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Please Signup and it will take you to the registration page:
Check the class list page for more information on how the classes work. See the the Class Schedule here. Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery website and Community Forum regularly. Warmly, Kathleen **********************************************************************
**Quote From Kathleen**Your journal gives you a picture of "before." As you continue the program, you will enjoy being able to look back at your journal and see how far you have come. **********************************************************************
**Testimonial of the Week**Hi Kathleen, Since we've been talking on fitness about running and the program, I wanted to let you know just how successfully your program works for me as an athlete. I started doing triathlons a while back, maybe 5? or so years ago. All of my competitions have been while I've been on step 7. I feel grateful all the time to just be able to concentrate on training, knowing my diet is great. I don't have to worry about "cheating" by having treats or alcohol. My weight (other than this darn menopause inconvenience :)) has stayed really stable. There are so many complicated plans and ideas out there about how to eat to train. Man, I just ignore them, eat my shake for breakfast, eat three meals, snack when I need to, bring a PB sandwich on the bike, eat shortly after I finish--so easy. This year my ranking was 35th in the country for my age group-in the top 5%, which is "All American." I came in 3rd overall for my age group in the northeast and 1st in Massachusetts. I know a large part of this has been from following RR. And the ranking is important and completely unimportant to me at the same time, if that makes sense. The joy I get from participating in competition, meeting people, having fun training is the really important stuff to me. If I win, great. If someone else wins, also great. I love riding really fast on my bike on a sunny day with everyone else! I'm just so grateful to do sports I love in a healthy body and sound mind. So thank you again and always. JoEllen **********************************************************************
**Radiant Ambassadors **You may remember that we were in the process of writing reviews of Potatoes not Prozac on Amazon. I am thinking it is time for us to go back over and add our voices. Well, it's been a big success! Since I first mentioned it here, there are now a whopping 298 reviews on the US site and even 168 reviews on the UK site - this is wonderful! The Sugar Addicts Total Recovery Program has 114 and Little Sugar Addicts has 41. Those of you in Germany can go over to the German version of Amazon and write something as well. And it's not too late to add your review on Amazon too - the more they hear from us, the more publishers, Amazon and the public alike will take notice. Let's get these numbers up. If you love the books, go write about it. Selena **********************************************************************
**Radiant Recovery® Store**I was having breakfast and thought it would be fun to report it here. I have a SHAKE made with Restore ,  almond milk and some baby oatmeal. I add some of the vanilla flavoring  from the store. I got a big bottle of it and put an olive oil spout on the top. I also add some of the All-One vitamins.  I use the pink can with the antioxidants in it. I put all this in a pink shaker bottle  and take it in the car with me when I go out for a meeting. Takes about 3.5 minutes to put together. Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen**Jo's ShakeMy favorite shake these days is double chocolate. I don't make it every day, because it takes a little longer than most shakes. But I like it. It is not at all sweet, so feel free to use my suggestions to make it sweeter. Sugar is fine on Step One.I've tried to make the recipe somewhat international, but I don't do too well on that. Fortunately, for readers from outside the U.S., the amounts are not at all precise. I never make mine the same way twice (smile). Once you get the technique down, it's easy to play with amounts.
Take the pan off the stove. Add the almond milk. I use about a cup. You can vary this, to taste. Stir well. Pour the cocoa/almond milk mixture into a blender. Add banana, vanilla, and protein powder. Blend. Add ice if desired to make the shake cold and thick. Blend well.
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**Radiant Your Last Diet**We have been chatting about finding a personal trainer! Having a personal trainer is not as scary as it sounds and is a fabulous tool to enable you to reconnect with your body. But how do we interview someone to find out if they meet our needs, how do we find one that understands the food and doesn’t try and put us on a diet (smile), how do we find someone who we connect with, and someone who’s affordable. Steph x If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Radiant Living**Radiant Living gives you access to the cutting edge of recovery exploration. This is more than the food and brings you into the world of all the other things that can support a recovery way of life including emotional sobriety, finding passion in your life, disarming things that get in the way, program maturation and of course spirituality. These conversations will help you transform fear and give new tools for healing. We explore the role of play in healing, how guided meditation works, when it is a good adjunct to your process and how to choose meditations. We look at topics such as grief, crisis, trauma, emotional healing, revitalizing your program and stepping into your big self. So the dialogue will be about the big picture and the practical ideas for daily implementations of the changes you are seeking. The dialogue will meet you where you are and offer ideas that you may not have heard before. Let go of old thinking that growing up has to be hard or painful. This is about joy, discovery, fun and creativity. And, of course, LOTS of laughter. If you would like to join us in Radiant Living, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Healing Phases**Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
This is an article Patti wrote a couple of years ago. I like to repost it from time to time because I love the ideas. See what you think. In working through the Radiant Recovery program, working the 7 steps, the question I am pondering is: Do we work a step, get it steady, heal, and move onto the next step without having to refine or go back to the previous steps? And if we do find ourselves going back, because it isn't working any more, does that mean we are doing something 'wrong?' I don't think so; I think we come across 'healing phases,' let me explain why. I believe that as we work each of the steps there is a sort of healing 'process' that our bodies go through. Meaning in one sense that what we start out doing on that step may not work long term, we may need to adapt what we are doing according to the healing that is taking place within our body. Maybe we add exercise, or stop eating as much sugar, or there is an underlying healing 'shift' (biochemical) taking place (unseen) where our outward lives haven't changed. Let me say more about this part. I believe that our biochemistry is, as we begin/work through/ and continue on with the steps always 'shifting' towards wholeness/healthy levels. I don't think that we get to a certain step, work it for two weeks, and bam biochemistry is healed. So, sometimes when a person is working a step, and they get it stable, and then they move on to the next step to only find that the previous step may not feel as stable any more, that it is because there is a 'healing phase'(one of a shift of biochemistry) that they may need to address. So, our body 'shifts' and all of a sudden some part of what we were doing before doesn't work. Maybe we are getting hungry before our next meal, maybe the potato isn't giving us restful sleep any more, or we start feeling emotionally out of balance. Our immediate reaction has often been, 'What am I doing wrong?' Well, I don't believe that we are doing anything wrong, necessarily. If we checked, and it all looks good, and we checked in with our buds and they don't see anything either, then what does this mean? I believe it means that I simply needed to 'adjust' my program to the changes within my body (whether things such as adding exercise/limiting sugar/etc. or inward biochemical changes/shifts). For me personally this occurred when I added in a training program. I was no longer able to go 6 hours between meals (I had been able to go 6 hours for years). But, I wasn't doing anything 'wrong.' My body was definitely indeed in a place of healing more, a 'healing phase', it was a good thing - but my meal timing didn't work right any more. I was getting hungry earlier. So I adjusted my meal timing to 5 to 5.5 hours between meals and amazingly everything started working again. The more intense exercise created a 'shift' and I needed to respond to that shift. Identifying these 'shifts' or 'healing phases,' when fairly early in program can be difficult. Our beta-endorphin levels are sometimes not supportive enough yet to help us to ascertain what is happening with our recovery. For instance, let's say we are going through one of these 'healing phases,, something that was working isn't working any more - we very often become discouraged and frustrated, and then this often leads to giving up, thinking that the program just won't work for us; that somehow we are doomed to a sugar-addicted life forever. We are not. (smile) Every one of us can have the radiance that is our birthright. And one of the most important things we can do when we feel the way I described in this last paragraph is to reach out in the Radiant Recovery community and share this with our buds. There are those who have walked the path before us, who daily share their experience, strength, and hope. Those who have walked through their own 'healing phases' many times, and can help us walk through ours. Through connecting with others we can then recognize that the possibility of help exists, and we rediscover the hope we thought we had lost. **********************************************************************
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. ©2016 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://radiantrecovery.com/learn/newsletter/ |
