Slow and steady. I didn't start out cold turkey. I slowly started making better choices. I started eating breakfast. Then I started making healthier breakfast choices. Then I started making better choices at lunch. Etc. I've been doing this for 2 years now and I still eat junk I shouldn't, but I make A LOT of healthy choices. It's a work in progress.

When you start eating clean some of us need baby steps. Don't look at it as an all or nothing attitude. I shoot for doing 80-90% . Get the processed foods out of the house or at least out of your sight. Unfortunately when you are busy, working being a mom and wife , clean eating makes it hard, for the most part you need to prepare and plan your food but it can be done.

As everyone has said, start small! My journey to where I an now started over apples about 8 years or so ago. I read (just rather accidentally) about the process by which they now appear in the grocery store, and though how yuck and unnecessary that was, so switched to organic or farmers market/ farm gate apples. As I read more about the industrial food supply, other items changed. When I'd finish up an item we normally use, I'd do research about how to replace it with homemade or something less processed. It's a slow, but worthwhile and for me at least really rather interesting journey. And don't beat yourself up about not doing it all at once!

Just take it one decision at a time. I started by changing my snacking habits. I started bringing fruit and vegetables to work as snacks, replacing my chips or my granola bar. I also started making my own trail mix to snack on at work. For me dinner was the easiest meal to "clean up". Now (6 months after starting to clean up my diet), I am exploring cleaner breakfast and lunch ideas. I have lapses all the time and sometimes it is just not possible with my life. I figure 50% clean is better than 100% processed. So just take it baby steps and work towards a cleaner diet and you will be successful. It gets easier as you go along because you learn the tricks to prepping ahead and you find more satisfaction in what you are eating because it is fresh and oh so delicious!

Hi, Start out with less things that are processed foods and more things that are whole foods.

Instead of fried chicken, have grilled, broiled or pan-sauteed chicken. Instead of fish sticks or fried fish, have grilled, broiled or pan-sauteed fish. Instead of fatty cuts of beef and pork, have extra lean cuts of beef and pork, such as ground beef that is at least 90% lean, sirloin steak, pork loin and tenderloin. Eat less processed meats like sausage, bacon, etc.

Maximize fresh fruit and veggies. Try to eat about 5 1/2 servings each day of vegetables (1/2 cup cooked or 1 cup raw is a serving of veggies) as well as a couple servings of fruit (1 large Delicious apple is 2 servings, so is one large banana).

Maximize whole grains while minimizing processed grains. Rather than eating white bread and white pasta, try healthy, whole grain products. Have old fashioned oatmeal or steel cut oats for breakfast with fresh or frozen (unsweetened) fruit. Have brown rice, barley, sweet potatoes and quinoa as sides instead of white rice, tater tots and fries. If you like bread and pasta, swap white bread/white pasta for 100% whole grain bread and pasta.

I like to make my own quiches, muffins and breakfast bars so I can just have one serving each morning. Make your own "baked oatmeal bars" for a quick, easy breakfast or snack, instead of doughnuts, coffee cake, cinnamon buns. Instead of corn chips and potato chips, have 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts, or 1/2 cup of pistachios in the shell.

Try having one or two vegetarian meals each week. Beans have a ton of protein, so your meal can be as simple as black beans with onions, brown rice and fresh sauteed spinach. You can make baked rice by cooking brown rice in vegetable broth and onions. I love to make a zucchini-herb casserole with fresh zucchini, tomatoes and cheese. I use low-sodium canned, diced tomatoes when fresh aren't in season.

You don't have to be perfect. If you need to go to a fast food restaurant, just make good choices. The chili, baked potatoes and salads at Wendy's are preferable to burgers and fries. The grilled chicken salads at McDonald's are preferable to the fried fish sandwich. The Cantina Bowl at Taco Bell is preferable to the loaded nachos. At other restaurants, order the grilled fish, grilled chicken and lean meats. Substitute vegetables for fries. Just try to eat more home-cooked meals than these types of meals.

Just try to maximize nutritious foods while minimizing foods that have no nutritional value and that will be a good start. I used to do this 100% for several years, starting back in 1985 when there was no such term as "clean eating." I did it the opposite of most people by tossing away all the food in my house and going cold turkey. My kids were raised on all whole, healthy foods. Now that I'm older, disabled and unable to do as much, I just try to eat more healthy foods and less unhealthy foods instead of trying to do it perfectly. Instead of drinking only herb tea, like I used to, I drink coffee with French vanilla creamer, which isn't "clean food." I just feel like I want that little luxury when I start my day. I like going to a restaurant once a week when I have the money. I just try to order the healthiest choices. On the weekend, if I want a sandwich, I make a sandwich. A regular old sandwich. The bread is whole grain, but it's still a regular old sandwich.

So, just try to make better choices when you can, and try to avoid foods with no nutritional value.

Instead of buying junk food and having it around....I buy a lot of healthy food. That way when you go to snack on something all you have to choose from is healthy items. Another idea would be if your going to buy junk food, get baked chips or the healthier version of the product your looking for.

Or you can bake you own "chips". I have made my own versions of potato, sweet potato, zucchini, and kale chips. So delicious!

There seems to be a lot of variance in what people who consider themselves clean eaters eat. The most basic, is avoiding additives, like msg, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial coloring. Then some people go as far as to only eat organic, or not eating any processed foods, even if they are organic, or don't have additives. Most of us fall in the middle somewhere and make adjustments as we go.

I avoid most processed foods, but I do eat out with my family every couple of weeks and I haven't kicked my betty crocker brownie mix habit yet. I don't let that keep me from mostly eating whole foods, like fresh produce, whole grains/ dry beans, and wild caught sea food.

A good place to start is to add more produce without additives, and to start reading the labels of things you buy.

My easy to remember rule for eating (which I follow about 95% of the time, the other 5 or so percent being eating out or eating socially with friends) is: if my great-grandmother wouldn't recognise it as food, I don't eat it. It doesn't mean I have to make every thing from scratch that I eat, but I need to be able to at least reproduce that item in my kitchen using basic ingredients. In practice i shop from the perimeter of a grocery store, or utilise the local markets and butchers, and buy the ingredients to make food rather than buying food made in a factory. If that makes any sense

Slow and steady. I didn't start out cold turkey. I slowly started making better choices. I started eating breakfast. Then I started making healthier breakfast choices. Then I started making better choices at lunch. Etc. I've been doing this for 2 years now and I still eat junk I shouldn't, but I make A LOT of healthy choices. It's a work in progress.

i totally agree with how you went about it...If I went all in at once I would have hit a brick wall eventually that since it wasn't what i wanted to eat then I'd just not eat at home and sneak fast food! It a learning process and like my dad tells me we didn't get unhealthy overnight so we're not going to get healthy overnight

I just started eating clean about a week ago. Right now, I'm only eating about 60%clean. I don't want to change all habits at once and see it as a "diet..." this is my life change and I need to learn as I change. Every day I try a new recipe and always make enough for lunch the next day. Take it slow, if you need to. One clean meal a day is better than none!

I struggled with weightloss too until I found eating clean was the way. Starting slowly is definately the way to go, you're all right.
I found it easier to use a chart of foods that I was allowed to eat and pinned it on my kitchen cupboard. I then experimented from there with the recipes I could make, and Google is always a great helper with new meals.

I recently have taken that step extra to become cleaner and turned to Alkaline foods. As my husband has been diagnosed with cancer this was the best way to assist in his progress (he is doing good with it btw)

I have also started a new cleanse just 16 days ago that rids of all toxins within the body and assists with weightless. My results were amazing, 15 days down and 4.9kilos gone. And I was always and still am active and was also eating clean beforehand, but since doing my cleanse I am ridding more weight/cm's from my body then ever before.

Yep it's hard, you just go at the pace you feel comfortable. But some serious advice....Clean your fridge and cupboards that is not on your clean eating list, if it's not there you can't have it. Simple!