Well it’s a new month. November is here, and we have once again gone through the insanely silly exercise of adjusting clocks an hour. Almost makes me want to move to Arizona — but not quite. At least I had five years of clock sanity when I lived in Japan back in the 80s (Japan abandoned DST imposed by the occupation in 1952).
On another topic, want to go comatose on the couch at 9:30 PM? Then go have dinner at Morton’s Steak House, have yourself a salad, nice big filet with clarified butter to dip it in, and then why not…have yourself a crème brûlée for dessert. Yep, Bea & I eschewed the bread (sent it back before the onion smell in the crust got the best of us), then opted for grilled asparagus instead of some sort of potato concoction. The meal was a package dinner-for-two deal Morton’s does, so it came with salad, apps, steaks, & dessert. I picked at the green salad with blue cheese, saved the bacon wrapped scallops for sometime today, upgraded from the petite filet to the double cut for a very reasonable $8 more, and then, what the hell? Let’s go ahead and have a dessert. It’s been many months since I even had a polite 2-bite of birthday cake. Crème brûlée was the obvious choice: sugar, but no grains.
But I said something to Bea that went like this: "You watch. All this energy we have right now is going to go straight down the tubes." Indeed, it wan’t an hour and I was dragging ass. Laid down on the sofa around 9:15 and the next thing I knew, it was 10:20 and I’d even missed a call from some friends on my cellphone that was sitting right beside me. Comatose was I.
So, there you have it. Sunday morning church has been fulfilled. I have confessed my sins.
And now, here’s how the blog is coming along.
Visits and Page Views
53,596 visits and 94,822 page views. By comparison, last November delivered 14,000 visits and 21,000 page views. I’m now starting to have to pay real money to keep sufficient bandwidth. Over the last year, hosting has gone from $15 per month to $50. Donations and subscriptions are always helpful and appreciated.
So, I’m feeling as though the blog is in a transition from being something I push forward to more of something that pulls me forward. That’s a good thing and I credit my readers. More and more I get emails from readers who tell me that they tell everyone about the blog, and then other emails and comments from new readers who, a week or two prior had no idea of the blog and they’ve been pouring over the archives.
So, thanks for that and I hope everyone keeps it up.
Lastly, I was surprised and pleased to find my name amongst a real low-carb Who’s Who of honorable mentions at Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb blog: Top 10 Low-Carb Movers & Shakers of 2009. Thanks for that recognition, Jimmy. I intend to make Free the Animal worthy of that honor for the rest of 2009 and onward.
Very impressive, congrats on ever increasing readership. I am very proud of you for this accomplishment.
Hey, I’m proud of you, too. Keep after it. You are providing an extremely worthwhile service. If we all keep pushing in our various voices, low carb will ultimately become the diet of choice…even for the mainstream.
Just wanted to share my congratulations to you too, Richard. I’m proud of your quick rise in the low-carb blogging ranks and wish you many more great years to come!
Ha! It takes about 20 minutes when I ingest refined sugar for it to do me in. It is also a way for me to discern whether someone has secretly hidden sugar in a sauce or something similar (even if they insist otherwise). The 20 minute rule never fails me. :-)
Congrats on your growing blog!
Michael
Nutrition and Physical Regeneration
Congrats, man! Keep up the great work!
Same thing happened to us last night Richard. A birthday dinner with a dessert, which we typically eschew unless it’s a sugarless/grainless type of dessert…like yogurt with a bit of fruit and/or nuts.
Anyways, the tiramisu made for an unexpectedly early bedtime for us. That blood sugar spike and the subsequent “put out the fire” response by my body resulted in the predictable “sugar>insulin>crash” cycle.
We are pretty disciplined about our diet so this little divergence is not likely to happen again any time soon. Funny to hear the same thing happened to you last night.
I am glad for you re:blog readership – it’s obvious that many people find your style and content as compelling as I do.
You’re definitely one of the most readable and honest paleo bloggers out there which keeps me coming back.
“hosting has gone from $15 per month to $50” for “94,822 page views?”
You’re kidding right?
I follow your blog because one of my clients has a link to one of your posts and I’ve found the whole Paleo food evolution both fascinating and enlightening (and slimming).
But, back to you paying ridiculous rates for hosting, we generally do unlimited bandwidth, managed hosting for the Drupal CMS, http://www.inet-design.com/drupal-managed-hosting.html .
But, it’s not like WordPress is much different.
I’ll quote you this for freetheanimal.com :
Unlimited Bandwidth
USD $25 / month or,
USD $250 / year.
Email me if you’re interested.
And on a note more in line with your Blog, I’m interested in your opinion on Iodine supplementation during the Neo to Paleo change over period. My thoughts are that Iodine is so non-available in the Neo diet, that most people are Iodine starved and could use supplementation to help nutrient uptake during the change over period. You know of any actual research on the subject?
Best Regards,
Michael
Owner
Internet Design Alliance
http://www.inet-design.com/
[email protected](fill in the rest, hate spam.)
(I’ll honor that rate for any of your readers too. Readers, just note in your email that you read it here.)
Hey Michael,
I recently interviewed a man named Dr. Jorge Fletchas from http://www.helpmythyroid.com on my podcast show who discussed this very subject regarding the benefits of supplementing your diet with iodine. Check it out:
http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/816/dr-jorge-flechas-on-iodine-therapy-for-thyroid-fibromyalgia-and-more-episode-283/
Good job Richard. Pretty nice stats for a little Caveman blogger ;)
I often refer people over to your site for your abundant cholesterol info.
Richard,
I was catching up on my Google Reader for your recent posts. Wanted to extend to you belated Congratulations!
Best Regards,
Zach
Richard,
Great stuff, as always. One of my favorite local bars has a great menu and I eat there often. They know by now that I eschew the bread and potatoes, substituting them with more salad and/or grilled veggies instead. They make a killer creme brulee and when I have it, I scrape off the caramelized sugar top and just eat the yummy dessert underneath. No sugar crash later, just a happy contented feeling from having just eaten a fat filled meal.
Keep up the important work on your site.
Regards,
Paul