Have you woken up one morning realizing you are overweight and as hard as you try, you can't recall how you came to this state? You can't seem to track it back to any particular event or series of events, because its something that over years from eating poorly and leading sedentary lives. Because this is something that has built up over many years, its also something that won't go away over night.

Fortunately the reverse is true if you were to start eating healthy and getting some regular exercise. The situation is not out of your hands yet. Anyone who wants to lose weight needs to watch their intake of food. It's important to eat healthy, because you are what you eat.

If you are going to watch what you eat, you need to focus on the key foods that will not only promote fat loss but are also helpful for your good health. When you make the decision to start eating healthier, its better not to quit cold turkey as this can be a very stressful change, and stress isn't good for us. So start by making a few changes at a time, replacing some of the junk foods with the foods below slowly.

Soy Protein

As omnivores, we eat both plant and animal, and from these food sources we get protein. Protein is vital in building and repairing our bodily tissues (Muscles and Organs). Because many of the animal based proteins carry some unnecessary fats (some fats are good, and some are bad), and through the growing, feeding and slaughtering process may come in contact with chemicals or biologicals that we do not want, there is a growing push for the tiny but powerful soy bean. The soy bean is a complete protein which is not that common for plants or vegetables, and its protein is not as high quality as the whey or animal proteins, it comes about as close to a magic weight loss pill as we can get.

Proteins require a great deal of calories just to digest so by eating a clean light source of protein such as soy we are gaining a double benefit.

Whole Grains

You have a whole grain when you have bran, germ and endosperm present. Whole grains are a great source of key nutrients. They are one of the top sources of vitamin B, E, iron, magnesium and fibre.
Here is a list of some good whole grain foods...

Whole Wheat

Wild Rice

Oatmeal

Brown Rice

Whole Oats

Whole Rye

Barley

Popcorn (no salt or butter)

Not only do whole grains provide the benefit of decreasing the chance for heart disease, and the potential for blood clots, they are also good for fat loss.

The Grapefruit

You may remember the grapefruit diet, its remarkable fat loss properties being attributed to crazy and mythological qualities of the grapefruit, well crazy as all that sounds...the grapefruit is a great fat loss food, but for more realistic reasons.The grapefruit has been shown to reduce insulin levels in the body by a very small amount, and this means that you will store less sugar as fat, not to mention lower insulin levels lower your appetite.The grapefruit is also a highly fibrous food and low in calories and it actually takes more calories to digest it than there exist in the fruit itself. As a result the grapefruit is a great food to add to your morning breakfast or any meal.

Apples

Water rich fruits like apples contain pectin and this can limit how much fat your cells will absorb. There are other benefits to apples and small berries as they contain considerable antioxidants and are just plain good for you. The age old saying. “An apple a day...” Be careful not to go overboard with fruits, however as they contain a high amount of high-glycemic index sugars or simple sugars, and this can cause some undesirable spikes in insulin levels.

Green Tea

Green tea has been shown to increase your metabolism on a daily basis as high as 4%, and having this as part of your regular diet can only help with your fat loss goals. If you do not have the decaffeinated version of the tea you have the added benefit of caffeine in your tea (though its levels are less than coffee).

Fish

There is a hormone in our body known as leptin that has the function of choosing whether or not your body will store the calories you consumed as fat or whether is uses them for fuel, and studies show that lowering the level of this hormone in your body aid in fat loss, or at least in the prevention of fat gain.
Eating fish lowers your leptin levels.

Research has shown that groups that frequently eat fish in their daily diet have leptin levels nearly 5 times lower than those that mostly live off of veggies.

Conclusion

Remember you are what you eat, so eat healthy!