Clean Eating

I have been wanting to change my diet for some time now. Recently, on Facebook, one of my friends (http://collagediva.typepad.com) mentioned how she went cold turkey and started. She dealt with the headaches and the detox symptoms, and she has done it. She said she feels great. I want to follow in her footsteps, but I am not going to go cold turkey. Yesterday, my first day back from vacation, I stopped at the grocery store on my way to work instead of stopping at dunkin donuts or my local muffin store. I ended up getting salad, yogurt, trail mix and things like that to take to work so that I didn't eat junk. I passed up candy and ordering out, which was a pretty big step for me. I did however go home and order take out. I had 2 good meals and 1 so not good meal. This morning, to help clear out my fridge, I made some bread with some dough that I had leftover. Again not the best, but the best part about eating it was that it didn't give me that same feeling that I usually have when I eat bread, you know, that feeling like I can't stop at just one piece and I have to eat the whole loaf. Was it good? Yes, but was is fantastically good? No. Again, I just got home from vacation and I need to go shopping. My husband has a broken foot, so I feel bad leaving him longer than my work day with the kids and I just get lazy once they go to bed. My lunch today should be interesting. I have a couple of carrot sticks, celery sticks and broccoli. Tonight will be chicken and greens and potatoes from the garden. I need to look into what I can eat on a clean diet. I want to ultimate3ly give up sugar, gluten, dairy, and caffeine. That means no more morning caffeinated coffee, no more bread, no more of many of the things I love. I am hoping that by giving up all these foods, I am going to gain some much more as is my family. If anyone has some resources to pass on, I would love you to share. I have some of my own from the past that I will share as I go along on this journey. This is definitely going to be a journey with small steps taken and I'm sure a few set backs. I know that I am of the mind set now that I want to do this, I just need to make the change and I know I will feel better. I'm hoping that I can learn enough over time to start using food and creativity in my professional career to deal with mood issues. I am hoping to do some research into how food, creativity, gardening, etch can play a role in our mood and behavior. I know that there are people out there that have done the research, and I need to read up on the research and learn more! Hope you all can join me on my journey to living a more balanced natural and creative life! Amy