Convention Center with Senior Games

Welcome to Radiant Recovery®
June 23, 2019,
Hi {!firstname_fix},
Everyone went home after the senior games. It was a fun week of inspiration. We went back to regular life. I am working on the design of a new logo for Radiant Recovery®. It has been quite an experience because I am doing it through a website that allows you to have designers compete to provide you with a product that suits you. Part of the process allows you to have a poll session in which you can invite people to offer their opinion.
That has been quite a process. Of course people in the community have a lot of opinions with lots of different perspectives. Listening to input takes courage LOL. It certainly is pushing me to think through what will work for me. Keeping things up to date and honoring tradition is a fine balancing act.
I am tired this week. So much change.
Support for Your Program
COMMUNITY FORUM
Share with others, ask questions, explore everything and anything about your program. Yes, even topics like chocolate and Fritos. This is a great place to get started when you are new.
Share
GROUPS
Work on your steps, get information on what to eat while running a marathon, ask about depression meds, learn how to do life. Groups are free and fun.
Sign Up for Groups
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
If you prefer talking on Facebook, come over to one of our three groups there. Radiant Recovery®, Radiant Recovery® International or Radiant Recovery® Germany that shares in German.
CLASSES
The Journaling Part 2 class will start this week as well.

Radiant Heart Care

This is an expanded version of the class we did last year. I have continued to learn many things about heart health and want to be able to share them with you. This class will help you understand your *heart* story and how it relates to your food. It will give you a safe place to talk about your diagnoses, your medications and your relationship to your care providers.

We will look at how to develop a healing plan that looks at your food, your exercise, supplements that might enhance your program and best ways of collaborating with the Health professionals. I am particularly interested in the role of grief and sorrow in our heart stories. This class is part of the new design of class that will go for a month at a time and will be defined and developed by the needs of the people in the class.

I can honestly say this is the most sophisticated class I have put together - mostly because the information is so complex, I have had to work really, really hard to make it understandable. I have spent hours and hours doing this and am VERY pleased with the content.

Senior games derailed me. We haven't started yet. You get another chance to sign up.

If you have thought of joining us but didn't get to it, you have another change. Come NOW.

Sign up for this class

WORKING WITH KATHLEEN
Coaching is a special offering for people who are serious about enhancing their programs and would like to have ongoing coaching. We will do individual assessments to sort out exactly where you are in the process. You will be guided in making your own individual plan. You can learn about journaling and adjusting your food for your own life needs – what to do when. You will be given tools and shown how to use them.
Apprentice coaching is geared for people who are on steps one – three. We are just starting a new group called Return to Radiance Coaching for those who have done the steps in the past and then drifted.
Skilled Coaching is for people who are steady on step three and ready to move through four-six. The small groups stay together as they learn skills.
Sign up for coaching
Signature Coaching is intensive individual coaching geared to your specific situation. You may want to step out of the craziness of sugar addiction, return to steadiness and clarity after slipping away, slow down and focus on your recovery, or deepen a steady rhythm of recovery.
This is a way to step out of feeling overwhelmed with where to start and what to do. Because it is so individualized, we can work on what is right for you at this point in your journey. People tell me that coaching helps them feel safe and focused. We work with your style, your rhythm. We address your fear and let go of shame.
Ready to Start?
"One of the markers for your own progress is the respect you command from those around you about your food habits."
Testimonial of the Week

I got the check up email from Kathleen the other day, and it really got me thinking about how my program is going.

I'm on step 4 and it's going well. Every now and then I think that I really can't tell a lot of difference being on the program though because I'm still eating sugar (although not white flour products) with my meals, sometimes a lot of it. Like last night when I went to the grocery store before I had dinner (BIG mistake), and ate 6 pieces of California roll and fruit, then added pork roast and brown rice, so there'd be enough protein and brown, and finished up with 3 fruit and cream ice cream bars. Of course that's because I broke my rule about shopping when I'm tired and hungry, and didn't plan my dinner.

Then I realized that I've been able to get my bank statements together and posted... AND balanced! And I've started walking with a friend 3 mornings a week. I went to the flea market all by myself (something my fears and insecurity would never have let me do before). AND with drs. consent, I've been able to wean off both the prozac and trazadone I had been taking (for years) for the pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia. I simply don't need them anymore. And tonight I actually went to the pool at my condo and swam. In my bathing suit. Of course, I got lucky, because no one else was there - but still - I WENT!!!!

So for all the times I think I "should" be doing better with the program, I can call up all these improvements in my LIFE - and really, that's what I feel the purpose is, anyway - to have a better life.

I know there still is a long way to go - I have 3 more steps to work on and I have about 50 pounds I'd like to lose, but I feel like I'm getting there. And that is SUCH a relief!

Kay

David Smiling
David, your Radiant Recovery® Concierge
Come visit our STORE. Call 505-345-3737 or email David if you have questions.
David, the store manager, is always happy to help.
Safe Place
Buy Now

I think you will love the Safe Place CD. It has a special introduction, and is licensed to use the Kolbialka Bolero we all love so much. It is timed for 20 minutes so is ideal for your mediation time. It is the ground for all the work of stilling the mind and opening your heart to healing.

Kathleen has been using this meditation with her clients for more than 25 years. She uses it as the center of her own spiritual practice. Like her food program, it is deceptively simple. Kathleen takes her listeners to a place of safety.

Use this CD over and over to train a response that is immediate and fully relaxed. Teach your deepest self to be quiet and still. Open your heart to the light and your life will change.

$12.95/$11.95 (subscription)
Your Last Diet!
Your Last Diet Book Cover

Last week at Ranch, I had someone ask me why I don't just tell people what to eat in order to lose weight. It really pushed me to think about what it is we are doing in YLD. The key concept is about LAST - this means the whole point is to get you to realize that diets are not the story. Diets = restriction which is simply one more way of taking away power. YLD is all about *empowerment* which means it is slow, thoughtful and transformative. It can be a little disorienting since it is so different from what you are used to.

Chats, chats, chats. We just keep talking, reflecting, learning. You will learn about fat terror, about the myths of obesity, how dieting fosters *restriction* and what that means for your long term success. We add new science to help you understand why you do what you do.

I’m in my third year of recovery and THIS year is the worst roller coaster of trying to balance my protein/sugar/mood swings. Was at wit’s end, wondering where could I find a doctor who knew addiction recovery AND nutrition when my sis sent me a blurb on your book. Went to bookstore and the words leapt off the cover at me! I KNEW it was more than just blood sugar; I had been doing food combining, protein in the a.m ., etc., for years, even before I quit drinking. You have saved my life and, more important, my peace of mind by filling in the blank spaces in my diet management. All I want is to feel normal after I eat! Even after I had the blood sugar thing down, I was still experiencing weird feelings, and there they were in the book: a column for beta-endorphin and one for serotonin! Thank you so much for giving me direction!! God bless you! I have been telling everyone about your book.

—M. S.

If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here.
Patty and Paulette and Volleyball game

Step Three Ideas

Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD

I know that many of you are moving towards Step 3.I thought it would be helpful to repost Martha's famous transition plan.

Here's what we came up with, a 10-step transitional plan:

1. Thinking about starting step three -- your breakfast is strong and solid, enough protein and consistently within an hour of waking up. It's important to have a carb, too, but don't worry about whether it's brown or white at this point.

2. You have started journaling. You may not be perfect at it, but you are making a solid effort and starting to collect a good number of pages of information (and NO information is just as important as complete information, if you get the drift).

3. Start working on getting a really solid lunch. Come up with several lunch options that work well for you, and have enough protein in them (don't worry yet about snacking, grazing, or any other eating during the day).

4. After doing a good solid lunch for awhile, try a few days of not snacking between breakfast and lunch. The important part is that breakfast is now solid. And lunch is solid. You are simply moving the snacks to one of those two meals. At first, you may want to try a shorter time period in between, say 4 hours. Just to give your body the idea that it is going to be waiting. Then, after that gets easier, slide it to 5 hours. The ideal is 5-6 hours, but for now you are simply working on transitioning toward the ideal.

4a. This one could fit in just about anywhere. One way to shift from grazing to 3 distinct meals is to establish a planned snack at specific times between b'fast and lunch and then between lunch and dinner. A planned protein/carb snack helps move you away from grazing mode. Eventually, you can work on going without the snack, but this is an excellent interim step.

5. Keep doing b-fast - lunch, with no snack, and now start focusing on dinner. What's for dinner?! Don't worry about when it is or if you are eating sugar. Just make sure you have some kind of dinner meal, with good food... protein, some veggies, and whatever else you like to have... No worries about the "whites" or "sugars" you are eating. You are just getting steady, not working on detox yet!

6. Now start to think about having dinner at a regular time. If you have been erratic, eating at 7 one night, 9 the next night, 6 the next... it will be a little hard, but try for a certain window. Such as somewhere between 5-8. Make sure you stick to that window until it gets to feeling natural... and then narrow the window a little, for example, 5-7. I went for a pretty long period of time working at this, and basically ended up with a goal of eating dinner by no later than 7 pm every night. Sometimes it took juggling, almost always it took planning, but it has become a natural part of my lifestyle. Another way to do this is to start wherever you are and step it backwards. So, for example, if you are eating at 9, try shooting for 8:30, and then when that is comfortable, step it back to 8:00, etc., until you get to that spot where dinner is about 5-6 hours after your (wonderful & solid) lunch. A big part of this will be adjusting your life to your food plan. And sometimes that means telling people, "Hey, I need to stop working (or whatever) and eat my dinner." This is called TAKING GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF (or, as we like to say, putting the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting others around you... ) This is a huge part of the recovery process. :-)

7. Now that you are having a solid breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you are no longer snacking between b'fast and lunch, try to move to the next level -- working toward no afternoon snack. If you are an afternoon muncher, perhaps one step in this direction is to limit the snack to one time, rather than "ongoing." So, pick a time, say 3 pm, and tell yourself that this is your afternoon snack time. Get into a rhythm with this for awhile (all the while, still doing that b'fast, lunch, and well-timed dinner!).

8. Okay, time to test the waters of getting from lunch to dinner with no snacking. Just like before, try to get your dinnertime set at the earlier end of the spectrum, especially during this transitional time. When I did this transition, I was eating dinner at 4:30 some days! But eventually, I was able to make it until 6 pm. I was just giving my body some time to adjust.

9. With all of these mini-steps, you are starting the process of moving your sugar to mealtimes (rather than eating sugar all by itself). If you must, absolutely, must have sugar in between (because you haven't detoxed yet and you will still crave sugar... this is perfectly natural), make sure you have some protein along with it. Yes, candy and cheese, or a hunk of meat leftover from a previous meal, nuts, or whatever you can find. It will at least help slow down the "hit" of sugar.

10. Keep working on these steps, one at a time, honing and honing, and then one day you will notice that you didn't even think about a snack! And that you just habitually eat meals on time. (And your family even starts saying, "hey, isn't it time for you to have lunch now?" You can train them as well. LOL) And that you can look at a plate of food and know by sight whether it's "enough" protein for you. At this point, you are solid on Step Three!

You will find that you create your own variation of these baby steps, but hopefully this guideline will help. It sure did help both Vicki and me!

Martha

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
©2019 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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