spring cherry
April 29, 2024,
 
Hi {!firstname_fix}, 
 
We have a lot of new people on the Step One list. Many of them want to just "get on with it" and do all the steps in a week or even a day. And it's funny because we do have some old timers who did that. They are still here, still "doing the food", still laughing and making little refinements and tweaks.
Is it different now? In many ways, yes. Very little thrashing around, very little drama. That is funny to think about - now we break step one down into 4 parts. That seems to make it manageable. Easiest first. Build on success. And last week, I actually said, "if you want to do it all in one day, try it out and see if that is better for you." I don't know if anyone decided to. 
I have be making a morning recipe from a cookbook called French Women Don't Get Fat. It is called Magical Miracle Cream. I am not French even though I have a French name. But I like the taste and I like the way I feel when I have it. It doesn't have cream in it but feels creamy in the mouth.
We are talking these days about creative refinements for the community. People get to know the "culture" - the things not in the books - sooner. People learned the "hot tips" more efficiently. We shall see. I will work on keeping you posted with our progress.
 
Kathleen

WORKING ONE ON ONE WITH KATHLEEN 

Working together is based on a mutual decision that the chemistry and timing works.

Here are some of the things I have worked with people on:
  • figuring out how to get started
  • learning how to persist
  • returning to steadiness after slipping away, 
  • slowing down and focusing on recovery, 
  • deepening a steady rhythm of recovery.
  • recovering from Keto or restriction.

I can help you "see" the places that might be the hardest for you. You can learn how doing the food affects all the other things in your life. Go here to learn more about it. Email me if you would like more information. I am happy to talk to you about options. 

Testimonial for the Week

This is a copy of a note Debi wrote to a new member of the community who was asking if the program really works.  This is a very strange place because we are not really making any wild promises. You don't have to put out any money to be involved. You may wonder what is up with that. You may not understand why we keep saying to slow down and just focus on breakfast. Many people have found Debi's words comforting. See what you think:


<i> Oh I certainly do know. I feel your post right in my heart! So many of us come to this program drowning in diet head, it's all we've known for years. And we turned to all of them out of desperation.

But Radiant Recovery isn't a diet, oh sure, you'll lose the weight you want, but first, you must heal your body so that this time you will lose the weight you want to AND keep it off for life.

I could have written your letter when I started this program. I felt scared of failing at one more "diet." I too am a perfectionist, and there was no room in my life for not getting things right. You can imagine the state of mind I was in.

I read the posts and had that, "It'll never happen for me," anxiety. Do you know what kept me coming back day after day? For one, I was at my lowest when I found Dr. Kathleen. Her writings spoke directly to me. She isn't just an author, she is one of us! I trusted her, a very uncharacteristic thing for me to do. But my desperation played a role in that, and I have never, ever, regretted it.

The second thing was these groups. Of all the diets I'd tried, some many times, I had never done one with free support as close as my computer. I'm housebound, and the instant welcome into this community was something I'd never experienced. I trusted what these people were saying, simply because I trusted Dr. Kathleen. I needed to trust, I had nowhere else to turn. And that trust gave me the constant support I needed.

Breakfast was so difficult for me. I NEVER ate breakfast, but I kept reading the books, clinging to the list, and pushing myself to do breakfast every day, and another day, and another day. Those very early days, energized by nothing but desperation and trust, turned into a year and a half. Today I am sugar-free and on the threshold to a whole new world, one I'd only ever dreamed about. I'm not saying trust is easy, but you have nothing to lose and so very much to gain!

And we're right here for you every step of the way too!

Debi

 

Radiant Recovery Store
David Smiling
David, my oldest son, runs our store. He makes sure your orders go out quickly and works with you to find the best things suited to where you are in your process. Many people think of him as their personal concierage.
 

  In this newsletter we are featuring the Cookbook. This is a great tool for your recovery. The recipes are great! Come visit our STORE. Or call 505-345-3737.
Your Product Name
Recipes to Remember

Your Last Diet

I was walking on the treadmill tonight. All of sudden I had this amazing feeling, like I was releasing my fat. I just went with the feeling and told my fat how grateful I am that it protected me all these years and I said "goodbye." I told my fat that I didn't need it around anymore. I know this sounds totally crazy, but it was really inspiring. Naomi

 

After all this time YLD continues to be a favorite place for people in the community.  In face we recently had a fascinating discussion about actually doing weight loss. It is so simple. The hard part is getting ready - learning the imbalance and the addiction. The actual "doing" is really mind boggling simple.

 

And if you join, come to chat. Wait until you hear what we will be talking about. The simple part is actually losing weight. It's not a secret.

 

Click here if you are ready to change your life or just plain ole have fun. And remember it is a lifetime membership so if you joined in 2008, or even in 2000 you can still come back.
Read More

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 kept 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 events 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 none of 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 may not seem really *bad*, they are actually hooking into a very old biochemical pattern of beta-endorphin protection. And if bad things happen over and over, 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. Then it goes away and 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.

 

 "If you are going to be with a person in a dark hole, take a ladder and a lantern." the steps are the ladder and the humor and perspective is the lantern.

 

 

 

This is Grace unfolding. You are not alone.
©2024 Kathleen DesMaisons. All rights reserved. You are free to use or transmit this article to your blog 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 for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction. 

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