I've recently started reading 'Superfoods to boost your mood' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Superfoods-Boos ... 0753510596 after being recommended this by a lady on here, as I hadn't eaten much junk and we'd run out of caffeine tea I thought I'd start from there. The book lists 7 days worth of mood boosting meals but for us and our budget it may be difficult to follow so we've done our best to buy as much mood boosting foods e.g. oats, brocolli, nuts etc and have not bought any biscuits, cakes or other junk, we've also bought brown rice and wholewheat bread and oat biscuits and honey. The honey has been my life saver, going from biscuit and tea sessions to nothing was going to be difficult but the spoonful of honey and the oatcakes with honey spread on the top were better than any biscuits I've had recently.

So what's happened so far:
The first day was interesting, I was already receiving my fair share of caffeine withdrawl effects, headaches, craving tea (decaf helped) but as I didn't drink gallons of the stuff I seemed to be doing better than a lot of people, I felt very tired and lightheaded that day, and began coming to terms with not being able to have a biscuit and other junk, I felt excited though and dh and me couldn't stop talking about how great it was going to be and how lovely our moods and relationships and life in general are going to be heaven like.
That day we had dinner earlier (5-6pm) than we had in a long time (normally anywhere between 8-10.30pm), I became peckish at the time where we'd normally sit and munch on biscuits and tea which of course turns out should be dinner time, dinner was lovely and fulfilling, it tasted better already, Lily went to bed at a slightly earlier time and we had more time together. That night was probably the hardest but no where near as hard as I'd expected, I had a couple of spoonfuls of honey (gives you the buzz and sugar craving beating qualities but with no downer/yuky feeling 2 hours later and boosts your mood), I munched on fruit and raw unprocessed nuts and drank water and actually felt ok, we went to bed earlier than our usual later time and slept very well.
The next morning I felt good but very hungry, I even had some nuts when Lily woke up at around about 5am, these helped a great deal. We ate porridge oats with milk (we haven't worked on dairy yet but may get round to this at some point), wholewheat toast, fruit and more nuts. That day seemed to be hard yet easy, a strange mix, definite withdrawl effects but we didn't feel that bad considering. The book states that eating 3 large main meals are important to stop snacking, again with our budget and the healthy food seeming to be more expensive this is difficult but we had small snacks of nuts and fruit if we got peckish.
I think the biggest noticeable change was the emotional side, the book explains that when you cut the food you emotionally eat you may grieve and feel angry, the emotions you weren't experiencing due to the numbing out junk food a lot of people eat to deal with problems and life in general will come to the surface when you stop using food in this way, I actually have found so far that my mood has been better, there have been almost no arguements with dh (the odd nagging but that's to be expected ) but we've been happier together, enjoying each others company again, but I did feel emotional at the supermarket, like I was saying goodbye which is what I'm doing with the junk food, it felt sad, we both felt it, dh more with processed meat products, our trolley had a lot less in it too, although the bill may have been a little more than usual but considering we avoided buying fruit and veg from there and bought this from a local farm shop we did save on that. There's some interesting information about supermarkets and the selling points, e.g. the hot food they sell smells lovely and then makes you want to buy, the offers and big bright white and red signs telling you to buy this or that make you spend more and eat more junk, then you crave more so buy more.

When I got home I tried some oat biscuits with honey, this was total heaven and definetly stopped the biscuit cravings right there, although I wasn't really craving them at this point as we we're eating better meals, for the end of the day, late afternoon I had a lot of energy which was amazing, it didn't feel like the right time of day and I felt like it was the morning as I felt fresh and cleaner.
The book states that after a while the thought of sugary junk food seems almost disgusting, I find this interesting as I have found already that thinking about eating what I used to eat feels a bit yuk, too rich were dh words, it also says that after a while the craving and withdrawl will drop and you won't need these foods, I do feel this is beginning to happen already but I do still miss the caffeine, and it does seem to be a constant thought on my mind; "I cant eat this or that" but I suppose this is withdrawl effects.
Today I feel hungry but that's because I haven't been having lunch at the right time and now is probably time for lunch, plus the large meals the book encourages us to eat are difficult on a budget, the same goes for the large amount of fruit and veg, 5 a day for both dh and me with varied colours of fruit and veg is difficult, almost impossible unless we break the bank, but we do what we can and still manage to cut the sugar and caffeine, it may seem a bigger deal than it is which of course is the point; pretty much everyone is hooked on sugar, high fat and salt products, plus from a very young age we are taught that emotional eating is good, if we hurt ourselves we get a sweet, after injections as a child I would be bought a chocolate bar.
I think the new diet may be easier on me even though I probably have more emotional problems; I deal with using food and with breastfeeding I need more calories which explained the huge sugar cravings; I grew up with a lot less sugar and salt and high fat than a lot of kids, my Mum wouldn't let us have chocolate or crisps or sweets where as dh seems to remember a great deal of 'nice things', his Mum still encourages a lot of cake and pudding eating, their favourtite thing to do is go up to a little cafe and eat huge pieces of cake and drink tea.
Strangely my biggest worry about this new type of eating is other peoples thoughts (as always ), I know that a lot of people are completely in denial or purely just don't know about emotional eating and that pretty much everyone does it, they would disagree and say why can't you have a treat, and especially with Lily. I can picture many places and people both healthy and unhealthy types saying "Oh let her have one, just one, it's just a treat" "Oh you're so mean" I don't think any amount of explaining will change their views as it's a big deep down problem that for many started from birth (formula milk contains sugar).
I think the most interesting thing in the book is that different types of food can be used to help different problems, this should be obvious really but it's not, you can boost your energy levels, boost your mood, stop fatigue, calm yourself down,plus the explanations of our supermarket bought sugar where all the nutrients have been taken out and this type of sugar that we all mass eat has absolutely nothing nutrional in it and causes a whole lot of pain that many put down to stress and depression so eat more of the stuff.
Dh and I are still waiting for something worse, our main conversation starter at the moment is "This can't just be IT, it has to get worse, this is too easy!" even changing a life time of bad habits is easy, (eating at the right times, not snacking on rubbish) but it does seem to be, we both think that in a few days it will be harder but I just don't know, maybe it is this easy because we've replaced the rubbish with food that does actually boost your mood rather than a quick high then the consequences later, I think the grieving and emotional side is the hardest but even that isn't so bad. My biggest worry is the fact that the honey burns my tongue and makes it red, I'm dreading the thought that I'm allergic because at the moment it's easing the sugar withdrawl
Anyway will update with what happens next and all the new and wonderful benefits

Tuesday
Today I had some cravings after lunch which is when I normally had tea and biscuits, I had some honey and oat biscuits and this helped, I still felt some cravings but have put that down to the withdrawl and that we should be eating dinner earlier, I feel better and my skin is beginning to glow and looks quite clear but that may be because I have finally sorted my contact lenses and am not so blind I have a lot more energy now and am trying to drink more water as this is probably why I feel hungry.

Great job on the eating changes! You've inspired me to savour good food more often as well!

As far as honey goes, do you have allergies to the plants in your local area? If not, try to lay your hands on some local honey. It's most likely a pollen in the honey that's getting you. Try honies from different locations or different seasons to see if you can avoid the pollens that are causing you problems. Imported honies (unless you're from the place where they come from) can spell trouble for some as your body is simply not used to the pollens in them.

Thank you for the encouragement, that makes complete sense about the honey, I do get hayfever around june and july quite badly, will try some local honey x

I get a veg box delivered weekly, and it works out sooo much cheeper than buying the same veg from the supermarket, or even the local greengrocers and it is all organic. i also find that it lasts for an age. Ive still got bags of potatoes in my garage that are 3 months old and they are fine. i would recomened seeing if there is one in your area as they can be soo much cheeper and you get to follow the seasons with the vegs. a lot also do fruit bags too.