Hi {!firstname_fix}

I am moving the depression class to 4/25 since so many of you wanted to do the serotonin class (and should) and didn't want to overlap. So what is coming up is listed below. But check the schedule because I am always playing over there, LOL.

This week we will be continuing the second week of the Brain Chemistry: Serotonin class and will do the first Step Six: Getting Rid of Sugar class. I am also going to do another round of Using the Resources of the Community for all you new people.

A number of you have asked me about how the classes work. I conduct them via email through Yahoogroups, so it does not matter where you live or what time zone you are in or whether you can get to the computer at a specific time. After you register for payment, you will receive an autoresponder email from me with instructions on how to get to the class. Please be sure to click on the link in the email that will take you to Yahoo to sign up

If you come right now, sign up, then immediately return the autoresponder email to join the Yahoo group through which the class will be conducted, we can fit you in... Just click on the links above.

Also, I would like to thank all of you for your continuing input on the classes. It is VERY helpful to me and I think it means we are creating a real resource that suits your needs.

We have posted a schedule of the classes for the next month.

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.

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 Recovery® website and Community Forum regularly.

Warmly,
Kathleen

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April 4, 2005

** Quote From Kathleen **

The more you do the food, the stronger you will get and the more powerful your recovery will be.

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** Testimonial for the Week**

I haven't connected with this list for a while - in terms of sharing my progress. So I just wanted to say hello and give an update :-) Although I have only been doing this program for about 9 1/2 weeks now and I am just tightening up step 2 before moving on to step 3, I have felt some significant progress lately. Between starting an anti-depressant and starting the program, things are looking up! I am beginning to feel back to my old self! :-) And I'm sure by the time I make it through the steps, I will be feeling even better than my old self!

This week I had an appointment with my chiropractor (who emphasizes in nutrition) and he announced a significant progress in my health (without knowing about SARP and the medication). He even asked me if I had lost some weight (and I haven't). But then he wanted to start talking about a plan for weight loss. I explained this program to him and told him that I wasn't focusing on weight loss, I was just taking the steps slow and steady and I would eventually lose the weight. He was very impressed that I wasn't trying to accomplish the weight loss so fast like most people do. I am grateful to this program for helping me shift my focus away from the weight loss! This experience confirmed to me that, as we start experiencing little bits of radiance, our countenance changes to the point where people wonder if we have lost weight because we are starting to "radiate", not because we really had lost any weight! I had heard someone talking about this in a post, but didn't realize that I might even experience it 2 1/2 months into the program!

Also, a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a few weeks and who knows I had been struggling, told me yesterday that there was more sparkle in my eyes, that they didn't look so "flat". Wow! Although I was realizing a slow change, it helped me to hear those confirmations from other people, that, yes, I am on the "up and up"! I am seeing how those glimpses of radiance can be felt as we go throughout the steps - and I love it! I can't wait for what is to come!

Thanks to you all for your help and encouragement! Now I just need to get myself ready to start step 3!

Amy

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**Recipe of the Week**

This week, I want to share what Janie did to alter the hamentashen recipe that was posted two weeks ago. This is what these recipes are all about, make them your own (smile). Here are Janie's comments: "Hi all, I tried making the cookies that Naomi posted in the newsletter and they turned out great. I used slightly different ingredients. Grace can't have wheat so I substituted the wheat. Grace loved them and also incredibly my extremely picky 16 year old did too. Grace has an easter party at her school this Wednesday and all the kids are having cookies and juice so now Grace will have her sugar free cookie and bubbly water. I now have another weapon in my sugar free arsenal, LOLOL! Thanks Naomi!

Janie

Janie's Hamentashen Recipe

2 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups oat flour
1/2 cup protein powder
4 eggs
1 1/2 mashed ripe bananas
1 cup butter
1 T. orange juice
2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt
Apple butter for filling (check ingredients to make sure just apples and no sugar)

Soften butter.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease cookie sheets or use parchment paper (I used parchment)
Place all ingredients in a large mixer bowl and beat together. Roll into a ball and refrigerate until firm, covering completely in plastic wrap. Divide into four parts.

On a well-floured board, roll out each portion to about 1/8 inch thick. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out circles (I used 2 inch cutter). Place 1/2 tsp of apple butter on each circle.

To shape into a triangle, lift up the right and left sides and have them meet in the center above the filling. Bring the top flap down to the center to meet the two sides. Pinch edges together. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Makes about 6 1/2 dozen cookies

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

I have been working with the Weight Loss Class to explore what will best meet your needs. I am excited that we are discovering the path for even those of you who are really stuck. It’s a good time to join, lots of new things are coming up.

For those of you who are not yet YLD members, Click here if you are ready to change your life or just plain ole have fun.

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**David's Corner **

Here is a note that Karen sent from England. For those of you who live overseas, we can help. If you have any questions, just email me. My job is to make you happy.

Ranch looks great!

The store .... well I wanted to share this. I live in England and realised I was about to run out of protein powder. So I ordered from 3 places on the same day thinking one would arrive shortly. Well, the George's Junior arrived the same day as the protein powder I ordered by phone from a UK store (5 days including a weekend) and the online order of protein powder from a UK site still hasn't arrived. Plus price wise - including shipping - it worked out to be comparable. A huge thumbs up to the store and David.

Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better.

Thanks
David

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

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**Our Online Groups**

Hi. I am Ann Margaret, the volunteer liaison for Radiant Garden. I found Radiant Recovery three years ago and it has been life-altering. I especially enjoy the Garden list because we have a really passionate group of people over there--people passionate about the program AND their gardens. We are revving up again for spring as those seed catalogs overwhelm us and produce dreams of beautiful, lush, bountiful gardens.

The Radiant Garden list is for sugar sensitive people who integrate or wish to integrate gardening into their radiant journey. This list is not meant to solve all of your gardening problems (the liaison is not a master gardener LOL); rather, the focus is on how gardening and related issues enhance our food programs and help us to connect with food sources beyond our own backyards. Some themes may include the radiant aspect of gardening, finding local produce, supporting sustainable agriculture, and managing all that bounty. There will be basic resources and links in the files section to help with specific gardening needs, but the conversation will move beyond. Come on over and play in the soil with us!

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** Featured Topic**
The Secret of Self-Esteem
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.

Optimism and self-confidence result from our body chemistry, not our mental attitude.

Sometimes we are ready to take on the world. Other times the bag lady sits at our feet clucking her disapproval of our lives.

Enduring and consistent confidence is a thousand times better than those few moments stolen on the back of a sugar high.

I have been fascinated with the beta-endorphin story for years. As you may recall from Potatoes Not Prozac, beta-endorphin is the brain chemical that enables us to tolerate pain. So when I first learned that sugar evokes beta-endorphin, it made perfect sense to me. Sugar as a pain-killer seemed to resonate with what my body already knew.

But I hadn’t thought of sugar as an emotional pain-killer. Reading that first scientific article about sugar reducing “isolation distress” knocked my socks off. When baby mice were given sugar, they didn’t cry as much when they were taken away from their mothers. This wasn’t about physical pain, this was a whole different story. I wanted to piece it together.

We know that children of alcoholics have naturally lower levels of beta-endorphin. What does this mean in real life? Beta-endorphin cuts pain. Therefore, lower levels of beta-endorphin mean we feel pain more deeply. We may be more distressed by going to the dentist. We may hurt more if we get banged up in a backyard game of football. We may cry more at the movies.

Because we naturally have less of the brain chemical that protects us from pain, we are naturally more 'sensitive.' Because we are more sensitive, we feel more deeply. I suspect that lower levels of beta-endorphin make us more aware, more tuned in to the subtlety of what we are experiencing, and perhaps more vulnerable emotionally.

Beta-endorphin also affects self-esteem. Confidence, optimism, a sense of connection, and a sense of elation all come with high levels of beta-endorphin. The euphoria of the 'runner’s high' is very real. That sense of being on top of the world is a byproduct of the beta-endorphin flood.

By the same token, low beta-endorphin can have a profoundly negative effect on our feelings. Self-esteem eludes us—even though it seems we should feel terrific, we don’t. We are successful, we have enough money, we have love and support in our lives — but inside we are convinced it all will soon disappear and we will end up as a bag lady.

We feel disconnected from those around us. Even though our mind tells us that we have a loving partner, an attentive husband, devoted children, caring parents, or loving friends, we still feel isolated and alone. Sometimes we shake our heads in disbelief. 'How can this be?' we ask. It makes no sense.

What is even stranger is that we don’t feel this way all of the time. Sometimes we are ready to take on the world. Other times the bag lady sits at our feet clucking her disapproval of our lives. Having our confidence and self-esteem be so elusive, so unpredictable can be crazy-making. It makes no sense until we begin to see our life through the filter of beta-endorphin.

When we have naturally low levels of beta-endorphin, our brains try to compensate by increasing the number of beta-endorphin receptors in order to catch as much beta-endorphin as possible. If something (like drugs, alcohol, or a large helping of sugary food) causes a big hit of beta-endorphin (also called a spike), the extra receptor sites will grab it and cause us to have a 'WOW!' reaction, a 'rush.'

Let’s focus on the sugar effect. We start out with low beta-endorphin, we eat sugar, our beta-endorphin spikes, and we feel really good. We are confident, hopeful, and excited about our lives. We banish the bag lady with a flash of the hand and pronounce our enthusiasm for life and its demands. We feel great! For a little while.

But then, in the middle of a conversation, at a board meeting, or on a date, our sense of possibility slips away. Doom descends and we are back to square one. The flood of beta-endorphin has receded and we are left with all those extra receptors sitting empty, forlorn — and craving for more.

So how do we handle this situation? Can we raise our beta-endorphin levels by doing healthy things instead of using sugar and drugs? And what’s wrong with that 'rush?' If our beta-endorphin is low, don’t we want to do things that get us more?

Here’s the key: We don’t want the rush because when it recedes, we end up feeling terrible. Instead we want a steady stream of beta-endorphin, which keeps us in a steady state of optimism, higher self-esteem, confidence, and connectedness. We want to enhance the natural production of beta-endorphin without the dramatic up and downs that have been a big part of our lives.

In some ways, this may be hard to get used to. We may not want to give up the rush that sugar evokes. To use my own words from early recovery, life without the rush may seem 'boring.' It was almost as if I was willing to endure the pain of the down side in order to have the thrill of the up side. This, in a nutshell, is the seduction of addiction. We forget the down side and only remember those few moments of glory. We will seek forever and endure anything to return to the state of WOW!

Trust me on this one, though. Many years later, my body, my mind, and my heart all know that a steady state of clarity and self-esteem is so much better than the illusion I carried around so long. Enduring and consistent confidence is a thousand times better than those few moments stolen on the back of a sugar high. I didn’t know this until I did the food plan — and kept doing it over time. But I do now, and there is nothing better in the world than living from this place.

©Kathleen DesMaisons 2004.

Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together:

Gretel, the liaison for the recovery list and the webmaster puts it all together
JoAnna, the liaison for vegetarians gathers the testimonials
Naomi, the liaison for Yisroel gathers the recipes
Terri, the liaison for Ambassadors sends over the ambassadors quote
Marie, the liaison for diabetes gathers the info on the online lists
David, who runs the Radiant Recovery® Store talks about what new products we have.