baby bird
Welcome to Radiant Recovery®
 
June 24, 2018,

Hi {!firstname_fix},

Its that time of year again, late afternoon rainbows when the clouds have rolled in and the rains come down. This is the view out my office window. Double rainbows always take my breath away.

I have a few things to announce this week. First I will be adding a new and specialized class on heart health. Since my own illness, I have learned a LOT about the things that can enhance and support heart healing. I have also learned that most medical people are not aware of this research and evidence. This will be a small and specialized class. We will work with things that are specific to your own history and your own story. You will be supported in working with your doctor to add some fascinating information.

Secondly, my grandson and I have been talking about the impact of video gaming addiction in his generation. I am curious to see if this is a topic you would be interested in exploring.  Here is a survey about your interest. Please feel free to respond to it.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9K6KJZ7

Let me know if you have thoughts or ideas.

Remember if you have ideas or input for us on what you would like to have available, share them on the Community Forum. We do listen and are very interested in your ideas.

​​​​​​​
 
 Support for Your Program

COMMUNITY FORUM
Share with others, ask questions, explore everything and anything about your program without a charge.
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GROUPS
Learn the steps, get fit safely, learn creative program cooking, learn about depression,  learn with parents, share in local areas. There is no charge for groups.
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NEW CLASS: Cardiac Care
This will be a small group tutorial on enhancing cardiac care for people who are dealing with heart stuff..a fib, arrhythmia, heart attack, congestive heart failure...Learn some interesting ideas that you have NOT heard from your doc. Learn how to assess and discern what is crazy making stuff and what is ground breaking and useful.  The class will run for 4 weeks and will be $99.

Email Kathleen if you are interested. 


WORKING WITH KATHLEEN

I feel very strongly about offering you a way to work with me directly. I have set up a whole range of options for you to do that - going from private coaching to being involved in small groups. This link will show you all the choices. Please note that

Coaching Apprentice is open to people starting or restarting. Apprentice coaching is more structured and skills oriented.  
Coaching Skilled is for people who are settled with their steps and want to look at other issues more in-depth.
Signature Coaching is for those who want to work individually with Kathleen in a 90-day process. Signature is the top of the line. All who have done it talk about their lives being changed. I had this marketing person write me about *getting clients* and it made me laugh. I think lots of people are claiming to be *coaches* these days. The trick is to have someone who truly knows what you need for your brain, LOL.

Another option is setting up a one hour assessment and then making a decision based on that conversation.

And you can always call 505-345-3737 and ask me about how each one works.

Sign up​​​​​​​
 
"Exercise is a crucial part of healing your sugar-sensitive body. Make time for it."
 
Testimonial of the Week

Here I am, 7 years on step 7, coming back to get my journal steady again. Over the years I have journaled really well, not at all and intermittently. Kathleen said something at Ranch that struck a chord with me. Not journaling consistently means unconscious.


See I thought - I am steady, I understand what my body is saying. I am clear and focused, it's ok if I don't keep journaling as my priority. Gail's program not THE program.


Dear gawd - I have spent too many years in recovery to be unconscious. So here I am!
 
Seven Steps to Healing
I had a visit from the sales Rep of the company that distributes the ingredients we use in George's® Restore. I hadn't ever met him before. He asked me if our customers realized that Restore uses their most top of the line Whey Protein Isolate. *Do they know it is from cows who graze in New Mexico Pasture?  Do they know it is hormone free? Do they know the cows don't eat any GMO grain?*. These were funny questions. I explained to him that we actually do not put all that in our marketing material because when you make *claims*, you have to pay a special fee, an expensive fee for each one and we are trying to keep the cost reasonable. I explained that sales are made mostly word of mouth. Once people taste it, they KNOW this is not like anything else one the market. [This is a corrected version from last week's embarrassing copy with the ridiculous typo :)]

Come visit our STORE. Call 505-345-3737 if you have questions.

George's® Restore Shakes
Visit the Store
 
Colette's Yam Cakes
Ice cream

This is a favorite that we all use all the time. They are yummy, versatile and a life saver. They are a little ugly, LOL, but don't be put off by that. Make them, and put them in a plastic box and take them with you in the car. Give them to the kids after sports,

have them on hand for long days.
Yam Cake Recipe
 
Radiant Living
Radiant Living is geared to looking at Step 7 issues. These would include things like jobs, relationships, hopes, dreams and joys. It is open to people who are on Step 7 or people who have been on Step 7, got lost and want to come back to what they know is best for them.  This is not a chat for beginners. We will be having some exciting topics in chat because I will be asking chat members to talk with me about some of the material for the new revision of the book.And we are having so much fun.

Find Radiant Living here
 
Your Last Diet!
Your Last Diet Book Cover

Charlotte is continuing the introductory class on the YLD list. What is the program?  How is it different from *dieting*? Why would it be a *last*? What a great discussion is happening. What  GREAT time to join!


I am just starting the steps. Does it make sense to join now?

Yes, it does.  We have found that the people who come to chats do the best with the steps. The connection in chat is awesome. You get a chance to talk with the old timers, you can ask questions and I am right there to guide you, It really is an incredible opportunity.


If you are not a member yet, come and join us. If you are a current member and want to join us in the new chat room, come to the landing page.  We will send you the pass words after you join.


If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here.  ​​​​​​​
 
Man sitting on stage
 
Learned Helplessness
Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD ​​​​​​​
 

This is an article I repost because it reflects on one of the more core concepts we work with. Most new people come in bathed with this. A lot of the newbie experience is helping this pattern quiet and shift.  If you have been around for a while, read it again and reflect on its meaning.


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 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 cant find your way out because the optimism and hopefulness only lasts for a little bit  while the sugar induced beta-endorphin lasts. Or 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.
 

Here is the Annie Lane column that brought so many of you here.


Dear Annie: I read with interest the letter from "Weird, Stupid or Selfish?" – whose husband eats all the decorative candy she puts out. His inability to resist sugar resonated with me, as I have sugar sensitivity and have engaged in exactly the same behaviors. I simply could not resist sugar.


After years of struggling and dieting and sitting in work meetings obsessing about the doughnuts instead of the topic at hand, I discovered the book "Potatoes Not Prozac," by Kathleen DesMaisons. Her theory is that people who are sugar sensitive have brains that respond differently to sugar, alcohol and refined carbs and that what they eat and when they eat it have a huge effect on them. She shows how to rebalance blood sugar levels, serotonin and beta-endorphins through small lifestyle changes and offers the latest research, free online support and seven steps to change your life. It is not about willpower; it’s about biochemistry, which her program can slowly improve, just one tiny step at a time, with amazing results.


I have been sugar-free for six years now, lost 25 pounds and never gained any of it back. I can go to dinner with family and don’t even think twice when someone orders dessert. I don’t have cravings, and sugar is no longer on my radar. I am more focused and more tolerant, and the daily mood swings are gone. The woman who wrote to you could suggest to her husband that he check out http:// radiantrecovery.com to see whether he does have sugar sensitivity. At the very least, she would be better informed about this condition. – Happy Without Sugar


Dear Happy Without Sugar: I hadn’t considered that health issues might explain

her husband’s behavior. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of sugar sensitivity.

Thanks for opening my eyes to the condition! I’d like to encourage all readers to talk to their doctors if they find themselves compulsively eating sugary snacks.

—Email questions to dearannie@creators.com


ANNIE LANE

 
 
©2018 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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