FitatFifty, I hear you. I lost my mom to cancer too and it was then that I made changes towards a more whole, clean eating lifestyle. She thought she was eating healthy by eating "Snackwells" and "low fat, non fat, fat free" "diet" "light" marketed things, yet you must remember when they take the fat and the calories out of foods, they generally put unhealthy chemicals and perservatives and additives to bring back the flavor, and these are can be poisenous to the body.
To start eating clean, just start by reading labels and become aware of what's in your food. Stay away from anything that's "partially hydrogenated, or fully hydrogenated", "msg" or "monosodium glutamate", and "high fructose corn syrup".
Has anyone read "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About" because I think it's really great at helping you clean up your eating habits and your lifestyle habits to be more natural?
Also, I loved reading UltraMetabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman...you can check out the website here, so great!
http://www.ultrametabolism.com/
By the way, you can still get some organic dark chocolate chips and nosh on a few every now and then... life needs its indulgences, just not the chemically ones, but the real ones!