Our family consists of 7 humans, 2 cats, & 14 chickens.
The human children range in age from 7-12, each one of them eats as much or more than the Mama!
Daddy Grok likes his S.A.D. and drinks soda like mad. . . he’s a reluctant paleo, but after skimming (and listening to Mama Grok read parts) of The Primal Blueprint, he’s kind of on board. At least for a 21 Day Sugar Detox. Hey, it’s a start and Mama Grok isn’t going to complain.
Mama Grok has been mostly Paleo for since April 2012. In the first few months of strict Paleo, she lost 25lbs. After a few relaxed months, she’s holding steady but desires to drop another 20lbs.
Feeding seven big eaters on a budget is a challenge!
It took me a while to embrace the concepts of grain free eating (whatever you like to call it). I came from the camp that all foods found in nature are okay to eat in moderation. Why remove an entire food group?? However, the more I learned about things like anti-nutrients and phytic acid, the more I understood why grains may not be the best diet staple. Then, I learned about insulin response and how our bodies treat carbs/grain like sugar. . . well, that all made sense given my bodies tendency to be a little thicker than I’d like despite calorie and fat restriction! I could lose weight on a 1300 or less calorie a day diet if I kept my fat below 50 grams and still limited my carbs to 2-3 small servings each day. But, it was restrictive. . . it was hard. . . I still didn’t feel great and needed to eat 5-6 times each day. Once I let go of grains, my insulin levels regulated and suddenly, I could go longer between feeds without the shakes! For my body (and many women), grains cause weight gain. . . our body releases too much insulin and then stores the extra as fat while our body goes in search of it’s next carb fix. This leads to things like PCOS/Metabolic Syndrome/difficulty loosing weight/eventually type 2 diabetes. Yuck!
I struggled with Paleo/Primal at first because I am a Christian. Specifically I am a Catholic Christian. I believe that science and faith can coexist. I believe that either instantaneous theistic creation or theistic evolutionary creation are both real possibilities. (Remember, God keeps no time like humans do.) So, I finally decided that Grok and his lifestyle very well could have been our ancestors (I do not believe in the atheist evolutionary theory or any of its teachings). Regardless of how old humans are, I believe we have evolved/adapted over time to be the humans we are now based on our environment. Obviously, I am not the same human as Eve and her first descendents. I’m pretty comfortable with the thought process that Adam & Eve ate PLANTS & ANIMALS- McD’s and doughnuts didn’t exist. They may have eaten a few grains, but without modern agriculture, collecting enough to count would have been difficult. I also believe that ancient grains are not the same grains we eat in American today (GMO, bug resistant, rapid growing) and a few ancient grains may be more tolerable to the human digestive system than our modern varieties.
Adam = Grok? Maybe. Grok = former ape? Nope.
Grok's Big Family 
Looking forward to enjoying your blog. I am a Catholic mama too who feels the same as you. I found your blog while searching for other large families that are living the Paleo nutrition lifestyle. I have 8 living children and my husband is a type 1 diabetic since he was about 13 and has health issues because of it. I started him on the paleo route as a last resort if you will to help him loose weight. Well paleo”ish” I should say because we just do the gluten free, hardly any grains(the only ones he may have is rice) but we still include dairy like cheese and yogurt. We have found out that my 13yr may have celiac disease and I have decided to just take the whole family paleo-ish. Finding recipes for kids and large families is proving to be challenging, esp on a very limited budget. Good to know we are not the only ones.