It wasn’t that long ago I was trying to convince people that the internet would one day be a large part of everyone’s life. It was the dawn of the information age.

Today we’ve been there, done that – even though many still think we’re in it. We’re not. A new era in online connections has begun whether you are aware of it or not. The new era has been dubbed ‘The Recommendation Age’.

It’s all part of the way Web 2.0 solved the troubles of the information age. As the web grew so did the overwhelming volume of information on any given subject, product or service. Search engines were bogged down, searchers were frustrated. Like a home that has too much stuff, the clutter was overwhelming.

Some of us learned how to use the search engines better for faster results. The majority of people just gave up. Those in the wise learned to share links of quality information – and services were born to facilitate that ‘content share’.

Sifting through tons of information to get to what we want is a bit like weeding the garden. We have to look at almost every blade of grass to get all the weeds out before we see the right result. And usually we miss a few patches.

What if we had someone helping us weed? Like a tennis umpire overlooking the landscape and directing our attention to important areas within our focal length. Moving from the Information age to the Recommendation age, the collective wisdom of the crowd is the new connoisseur. More and more people spend time writing reviews and recommendations, creating blog posts about everything, posting comments, writing forum topics and replies — these all serve as beacons for searchers by highlighting areas of interest through filtering. Filtering out the junk, the filler, heck even the marketers, and recommending the cream of the crop to both human and search engine spider.

Filtering transcends search and browse behavior. It is amplified through word of mouth. Sites like Facebook are huge filtering engines for recommendations and collective sharing. The ‘linkers’ and ‘bookmarkers’ of the world?build massive lists of tagged links – the numbers of clicks to those sites are like endorsements, showing us where to click next.

With monstrous data crunching technology more and more sites are able to measure consumption patterns in real time and make changes just as quickly. This is a grand shift entering the Recommendation age.

Google Adsense filters immense volumes of keywords to bring quality ad content to any web site. Amazon Associates are easily able to place recommendations and reviews on their own web sites.

Sites like Rhapsody, MySpace, Netflicks, and Commission Junction are the modern day factories. The workforce has been democratized so that any individual anywhere can produce hard or soft products and services for anyone to consume. All of these sites offer sophisticated filtering through recommendations, reviews and statistics. Still other sites like Digg, Reddit, Folkd, Shoutwire and Care2 are aggregators of opinion on any given topic and filter information based on democratic consensus and democratic publishing.

Bloggers filter niche market information providing direct access to relevant data. Blog comments are like fine tuners and direction finders helping us hone in to our personal interests without reviewing every option ourselves.

The age of information is over. We have entered the age of Recommendation.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about this the last month. You see, I’ve been skinny and I’ve been fat (this is the largest I’ve ever been but the doctor says not to be too hard on myself). Skinny is inherently better!

I’m joking. Somewhat. I’m not actually after skinniness again, but I am after health and to get that health I’ve got to lose weight. Seven years of pounding the keyboard – even just being enamoured by the knowledge share online – hasn’t done my body any favors. There have been other stresses that caused me to find solace in food, but really, there is no excuse. At least no medical excuse for being this size.

And so, I’ve gained 40 pounds.

The last two weeks have netted great change. A stronger body, my clothes fitting looser and less strain on my knees when I take long walks or play on the WII. All I have done is a 20 minute workout daily (The 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels), watch my fat intake, and take a 1 mile walk every now and then (every second day – more or less).

If I was smart, and I’d like to be, I’d be drinking more water (right now I drink next to none) and getting more sleep to aid in my success at losing weight and growing healthier. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day so I’ll incorporate those new habits into next week’s agenda.

As for my title “Skinny is Better” I can remember how I felt when my jeans were just slightly lose in the right places, when a t-shirt fitted snugly and looked great, when no matter where I went or what I did I felt free enough to flirt, smile and walk with my head high at all times. Does it make me shallow that I don’t feel that free today, knowing that thin is better? Absolutely not! If I was shallow I’d also be insecure about my age, my wrinkles – but those I wear with honor as a rite of passage into 45+, the weight on the other hand and in my case is an act of negligence, “not paying attention”.

This low GI, no added sugar banana bread recipe passed the Veronica test! I enjoyed it too and we at our slices for a snack after dinner without butter as it was certainly moist enough.

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 smashed over-ripe bananas
• equivalent of 1/2 cup sugar (I use Suzanne Somers SomerSweet – in this case, 8 of the tiny scoops was perfect for this recipe)

I’m not one for cooking and baking by perfect directions, the use of 5 bowls or precise measurements. I actually used a little less than 1/4 cup of butter in my last test as I’m also trying to lose weight (less fat, less sugar recipes).

I can tell you this though – if your banana bread is always coming out of the oven 1/2 baked inside and too dark outside, get a wider loaf pan and make a loaf that shorter in height. When you remove any banana bread from the oven let it sit for 5 minutes in the pan as it will continue baking inside (remember that the interior of the bread is still 350 degrees even after it is removed from the oven.

Finally, if it isn’t cooked right through, remove it from the pan after cooling and pop it into a low powered microwave on high, or a high powered microwave on medium for 60 seconds. That should finish cooking it through consistently.

Standard size banana bread loaf pan is 8″ x 4″. Bake at 350F for 55-60 minutes.

Well. It is done.

Late last night, just hours from my deadline I sent off 53,576 words and 60 some photos, charts, forms and drawings to my publishers at Skyhorse.

I feel as though I’ve been in some trance for the last month. The world has kept spinning without me but I’ve been incapable of even noticing.

For over 40 years I’ve been an avid reader – from novels to self help, business manuals to software applications – so much so that I am certain my eyes should have worn out by now. And, practically everything I read is critiqued.

“Lacking.” “Poor ending.” “Disjointed.” “Too abstract to be of any use.” “Fluff written to make a book sale…”

And on it goes.

Not once have I thought of the author and the hours behind every paragraph, every page, all with their reader in mind. “Will they understand?” “Are connections to the whole obvious on this topic?” “Should this go here, there, or be edited out entirely?”

Now I know.

In the writing of “The Joy of Keeping Farm Animals” I crafted pages and pages last month, that never even made it to the publisher’s desk. Cut and snipped as irrelevant, too advanced, far too verbose – whatever the reason. Hours of work writing, editing and then just cutting away without mercy.

After years of thinking – in response of other authors claims of “I just wrote a book…” – “So what?” — it is time to rethink my brain’s quippy response.

Even fluff books take effort. (One comes to mind but I won’t name it.) I was sadly disappointed when I paid full price for it, waited for Amazon to deliver it, blocked off time to absorb the content, and considered adding it to the campfire half way through…)

So now I understand authors a little more. Have a little more compassion for them.

If they care about the content they’ve been commissioned to write, they’ll spend hours in research, days in mentally mapping out the flow, outline, theories presented. And even longer writing, editing and rewriting.

If they value their name as an author, they’ll work right up to the deadline, at all costs – even losing friends, family, weight, sleep, in the process.

And when they send off their work to the publisher, they will celebrate in some odd way perhaps that only makes sense to them. Celebrate because they have just given birth to something – perhaps beautiful, but maybe ugly and of little value.

As for me – I wrote the book I wish I’d found years ago.

I celebrated by eating my favorite foods – Cowboy steaks, caesar salad and a snack of fresh fish from Fraser Lake (thanks to Bradley Foster).

This morning I awoke to self-doubt. “What if my publisher hates it?” “What if she says I missed the mark and have to rewrite 20,000 words of it?” “What if I suck?” “What if they publish tens of thousands of copies and people buy it but it contains a mistake that needlessly costs people time or money?”

Argh. Oof.

I remember seeing movies where an author finally finishes his manuscript and engages someone to sit and read it, in their presence, before sending it off to the publisher. Authors do this so they don’t have to experience this feeling of waiting with baited breath for the publisher’s comments.

I didn’t do that. No one saw a word of what I wrote. Veronica and Eric heard my “Dedication and Thanks” but that was all.

So now I wait with my good friend named “Doubt” while I tip my hat to all the authors who have written before me. May I recognize your hard work a little gentler next time – even if it was “Lacking.” or “Disjointed.”

I’m now convinced that no one can understand an author unless they have written a book themselves.

One of my favorite shows (and I don’t have very many) is America’s Funniest Videos.

Truly my favorite video of all time was Lola doing the Smarty Pants Dance – around the living room every time she picked out a state on her US map, called for by her dad. The special part? She’s only 20 months old in this video and the way she dances around the room reminds me so much of Veronica when she was this young.

Watch it and see for yourself. Honestly, I think this video was worthy of more than a $10,000 prize…

Smarty Pants Dance

Just signed the contract with Skyhorse Publishing Company last week and am really excited about this new book I’m authoring. The fabulous and supportive Ann Treistman (Senior Editor at Skyhorse) is in direct contact by email, replying within a day to my queries and requests. I feel as though I’ve worked with her before…

The book is an introduction to raising farm animals for the purpose of growing your own food – of which I have a serious passion. The best part is the perspective from which I’ll write. You see I’ve lived on both sides of the farm gate, both sides of the barnyard fence.

Having grown up in downtown Toronto from the ages 12-30, I was never truly certain of the foods I purchased in the grocery store, never fully aware of what I was buying in those neat little styrofoam trays…and I didn’t care much either as my life back then faciliated eating out most meals and in much smaller quantities!

After moving to farm country and dining at the tables of 2nd, 3rd and even 4th generation farmers I began to enjoy my meals more. Not only did they taste better, but I was becoming stronger and healthier every year. No steroids, no growth hormones, no additives nor meat plumpers. I don’t have the scientific research to damn the large chains over how they grow and supply our food en masse, but I can tell you that I’ve never felt better and I’m older than the prime of my life.

It wasn’t long after moving to the country, months really, that I began growing my own chickens, goats, pigs – and loving every minute of it. The work or daily chores are inconsequential when the food hits the table. Especially so when you’re feeding your children. You only want the best into those growing bodies!

The book won’t be released to the public until early 2010, but I’ve only a few short months to finish writing my first edit. In the meantime, there’s the proposed book cover (above), sent by the publishing house, for you to view or comment on.

The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon at the link below (which is a money saving idea as I believe this book will launch at $14.77, but if you pre-order you’ll get it at the posted price, saving approximately 35%. On the other hand, if the launch price lowers, you will receive a rebate from Amazon).

…that touched me and healed me, and which I don’t want to forget when I give the book back…

pg. 168

“Only you, in the entire universe, believe that somehow you are to blame. Missy doesn’t believe that, nor Nan, nor Papa. Perhaps it’s time to let that go – that lie. And Mackenzie, even if you had been to blame, her love is much stronger than your fault could ever be.”

Thanks “Willie” for this book!

Thanks also to Lucille Burke from Burke’s Jewellers in town who lent the book to me.

I never read novels so this book, which attracted and held me right to the very end, was special. Special as well since it was one of the first of five steps into pulling me out of a 2 month depression, (dark days indeed) and catapulted me into a new journey of self-discovery. Seems I had it all wrong – the woman I thought I was – so at 45 I’m working forward to figure that all out now.

An easy read novel that inspires introspection and change – if you let it.

Some people have never heard of the Glycemic Index and how food is ‘weighted’ and why the process is even necessary.

Even more people have heard of GI, but don’t know much about it, and their lives are just too busy already to learn something new about the way food affects the human body.

This post is a primer of sorts, an introduction to the Glycemic Index, an explanation of why this is important for overall health, and where to get more information on the subject of Low GI eating.

Keep in mind that this is a far more advanced concept of understanding food’s effect on your body than simple calorie counting. Although the caloric value of a food is somewhat important for health and well-being, far too many people place far too much emphasis on calories when watching their weight – one of the major reasons that diets don’t work!

What is the Glycemic Index?

The Glycemic Index is a measure of foods’ and combination of foods’ ability to raise a body’s blood glucose levels. The process of determining a food’s effect is costly and requires scientific experimentation using human subjects.

If you are looking to lose weight, manage your weight, prevent the onset of diabetes or manage your blood sugar levels, understanding the Glycemic Index is important. I might also add that if you are a parent or caretaker who influences eating habits of others, learning about GI should be a primary concern and responsibility.

What Foods Affect Glucose Levels?

Sugar, of course, natural and refined. Carbohydrates also convert to glucose in your body, but carbs are not all created equal and are a necessity to optimum health – so don’t nix them from your intake just yet…

The best direction you can take for your body – no matter what your health goals are – is to fuel your body with foods that do not cause ’spikes’ in your blood glucose levels.

Low GI foods, slowly digested, cause a gradual rise and fall in glucose. This is optimum to healthy bodies because:

• low GI foods reduce the secretion of your body’s insulin throughout the day,
• low glucose levels decrease oxidative stress in your blood, heart and other organs,
• an even blood glucose level throughout the day ensures vessels remain elastic, reducing formation of plaque leading to atherosclerosis (heart disease),
• low glucose levels reduce your body’s tendency to form blood clots, and
• slowing the digestion through Low GI dieting, helps delay hunger pangs and therefore promotes weight loss.

If you’re starting to understand that foods which take your body longer to digest are better for your body, you’d be correct – but there’s more to Low GI diets than meets the eye so read on!

Know More About the Food You’re Eating Than Its GI Value

The Glycemic Index is not meant to be used in isolation when understaning a food’s effect on the human body. If that was the case, you might assume that low GI, but high fat, foods (i.e. chocolate, potato chips, beer), are a good choice – but these would, in fact, be poor dietary choices overall since they are high in fat or other potentially harmful substances.

High fat foods do have a tendancy to appear on the GI as a low GI food – especially when compared to their lower fat equivalents. For instance potato chips have a GI of 54, vs. their more natural counterpart potatoes with a GI of 85. Your glucose levels may be maintained, but you’d quickly gain weight and clog your arteries with all that fat intake if you simply took the GI at face value.

With that said, don’t avoid all foods just because they have fat. Fats, like carbohydrates, have a wide spectrum of good to bad. Good fats, eaten with carbohydrates, round out a meal whereby the fat is beneficial and the meal becomes low GI. Which is my next point – combining foods for optimum health.

I won’t go into great detail in this post about combining – I’ll save it for another day, once you’ve had a chance to mull over and hopefully adopt the low GI way of life – but as an example of the power of combining…just a few good squirts of a fresh lemon can lower the GI of a meal. Wouldn’t you agree then, that learning about the Glycemic Index, combining foods, and later Glycemic Loads, is important and vital to your overall health?

I thought so!

Talk to you soon,

Laura Childs

p.s. Two books I’m reading right now (although they were published in 2005 and are well reviewed on Amazon) are:

I would never recommend that you eat pie to lose weight, but this low GI recipe will allow you to have a slice of pie without the guilt, on a special occassion. It will also allow you to bake a pie for your family without feeling as though you are contributing to their obesity and sugar reliance/insulin resistance.

Low GI Pie Crust

I use Special K cereal for this. Just toss it into the food processor and spin it into crumbs. The last time I used this recipe I made a key lime pie with a low-sugar, low calorie lime mix from Sheriff. The next pie I’ll make with this is a makeshift, low calorie, low GI, banana cream pie using sugar free vanilla pudding mix and fresh bananas.

Just please remember that part of changing your eating to a low glycemic and low GI load diet really should involve getting rid of the sweet tooth that most of us have developed over the years of poor food choices. Sweet is just like any other addiction. It can be broken with perseverance. I’m not just talking about sugar here, this includes the chemicals being sold as zero calorie sweeteners and sugar free sodas.

At any rate, this is a nice ‘transition’ food – from ’sweet tooth’ to healthier choices.

This pie crust recipe does well to replace most graham cracker crust recipes.

• 4 cups Special K cereal (to yield 1 1/2 cups of crumbs)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons fructose*
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Process the cereal in your food processor (or place the cereal in a plastic bag, seal, and use a rolling pin to crush to crumb consistency).

Pour crumbs into a medium bowl. Add cinnamon and fructose*.

Pour in melted butter and stir until well blended.

Press the crumb mixture into your pie plate. This will not stick as well as a traditional graham cracker crust, but if you just press gently and prop the crumb mixture along the sides of the pie place you will find that it firms up fine after baking.

Bake for 7 minutes in a pre-heated oven, until set.

Cool and fill with your favorite filling.

————-
* I use Suzanne Somer’s Sommersweet Sugar replacement for all my recipes. For this recipe’s recommendation of fructose, I used 1/2 teaspoon of Sommersweet mixed with water.

One of the largest obstacles to losing weight is re-learning how to cook. Having been on my own since I was 15 and having spent years working in the restaurant industry, I find myself in a position where I can cook a great meal for many people, effortlessly.

That’s not a proud boast! Lately I’ve been cooking for my family and dinner guests with an attitude of change. Change in intake that is.

As we’ve aged, we’re all growing spare tires, sporting muffin tops (that round of fat that bulges over the top of your jeans), and discovering love handles. Apart from the cosmetic disgust this type of fat on our bodies is the worst medically.

After a year of reading multiple research studies, dietary books, health magazines, and subscribing to various member’s only websites, I’ve taken a turn into eating, cooking, and feeding others a diet based on the Glycemic Index.

I will discuss this in later posts, but for now – if you are following me in this lifestyle weight loss change and decide to go off discovering more on your own – be very careful! I have purchased ebooks and paperbacks of recipes that are professed to be Low GI – but are not by any stretch of the imagination, low GI. (I have asked for refunds on ebooks and returned books to Chapters as a result. I think the authors should learn that the educated public won’t waste money on this stuff anymore!)

The trouble is that the Glycemic Index is still a relatively new theory/concept/ideal. People have had massive success with it – dieters and diabetes sufferers alike – but compiling the data for any food’s GI level (as well as combinations of foods) requires time in the scientist’s lab with real human experimentation.

Thankfully many raw foods have already been calculated and are easily available to the health conscious crowd. In my own personal library, one book stands far above all the others and it sells for less than $8. It begins with a brief introduction of the Glycemic Index and touches on the Glycemic Load of a meal or quantity consumed. My favorite part however is at the back 2/3s of this book – a listing of foods and their value.

Be sure to understand that this is not a new way of counting calories! This is the how and why of your body storing fat vs. burning it as energy. This is the answer to your questions about metabolism. This is the reason why we plateau when we diet and exercise – or both.

This is why so many diets have failed so many people for so long…

Having learned this, and spent a few hours these past two weeks finding the best tools online and using the books I have here as supplementary information – I have lost 12 pounds. Without fuss or freaking out. Without hunger or depression. And I have more pep today than I’ve had on any good day in the last two years.

Plus, on my path to being a conscious eater I’ve lost that uncomfortable bloated feeling at the end of every day. I’m not entirely convinced at this time that this is the result of low GI eating. I have a feeling that loosing that bloat awkwardness was more leaving white flour with yeast behind.

Over the next few weeks I will write more for you on the Glycemic Index and the Glycemic Load of different foods and combinations of food. I will also post tested and tasty recipes – that have been evaluated for their GI and GL points – and hopefully deter those people writing recipe books and ebooks that steer good people wrong – taking their money and giving them low GI recipes that don’t make the cut (i.e. are not low glycemic recipes at all).

In the meantime review these books with me, that you can purchase used for less than $10 together and learn more about the Glycemic Index.

I found this recipe and decided to give it a try. After some simple modifications I ended up with a tasty patty that compliments a hearty soup or that could be made smaller and used as an edible plate for salsa or hummus dip.

Here’s what’s really important…my 14 year old daughter with a discerning palate could not tell me what was in the patties, and did not want to know. She enjoyed them and didn’t want to enjoy them less by knowing the ingredients (since she was certain it was something too healthy to be enjoyable).

They are, in fact, both healthy and enjoyable.

The recipe below makes 14 3″ patties. I have accounted for 2 patties per serving, and nutrition information is below the recipe. Honestly, have a nice veggie barley soup with two of these tasty low GI and low Glycemic Load patties and you won’t be hungry again till morning!

2 patties have an estimated GL of only 6 based on nutritiondata.com analysis
131 calories per serving (that is all from the oil! switch to PAM if you are counting calories!)

———————

2 1/2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (3, 6″-7″ zucchini)
1 teaspoon salt, divided in two equal portions
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (or more) all purpose flour (try whole wheat flour next time)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (i used dried oregano)

2 tsp (about) olive oil
2 tsp (about) corn oil

Toss zucchini and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer to sieve. Press out excess liquid; transfer zucchini to a clean and dry bowl.

Mix in egg, 1/2 cup flour, cheese, and remaining salt.
Mix in parsley, onions, and dill (or another favorite herb).
If batter is dripping wet, you can add more flour (one tablespoon at a time).

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons corn oil in large teflon skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls into skillet. Fry until golden, 3-4 minutes per side, adding more olive oil, corn oil o PAM if required.

Transfer these low glycemic index patties to paper towels.
Leftovers can be refrigerated and eaten within the next day or two.
These can be made 1 day ahead and taste just as lovely when reheated, uncovered, in 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe makes 14 patties and halves easily if you are cooking for one only.
Nutritional analysis is based on 2 patty serving.