More Than A Resolution, Part 1: Beginning your own journey to better health

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - New Year's Day and your New Year's resolutions may seem like a distant memory.

According to a Purdue Psychologist, only 8 percent of people who make them succeed.

Of course, one of the most common resolutions year after year is to lose weight.

Obesity is a growing problem in this country, and I can relate. Just four years ago, I weighed more than 300 pounds.

Seeing my weight that high changed my life forever, and I stand in front of a camera during the week 115 pounds lighter, healthier and more in shape than I've ever been.

This is my life-changing story, as well as the story of B.N. Shape Clothing founder Dozie Onunkwo.

My lifestyle change led to achieving the job of my dreams. Onunkwo's lifestyle change led him to change the lives of others.  

In 2004, Onunkwo admits living a very unhealthy lifestyle moving him down a road to severe health complications at an early age.

As a teenager classified as obese and weighing more than 300 pounds, he knew it was time to change his life.
 
"At the age of 19, I started having chest pains, and I had to go to the hospital," Onunkwo said. "I had to actually get seen by a doctor, because I was having chest pains. When I was sitting in the waiting room, me, myself at 20 years old and seeing people that could be my parents,  I said I have no business being in a place like this at this age."

Onunkwo made the change to eating healthy foods, getting active and pushing himself to be in shape.  

Now, a personal trainer, health expert and founder of B. N. Shape Clothing , Onunkwo helps others change their unhealthy habits.

There's no magic trick. There's no magic pill. There's no magic diet.

"It's really all about making it a permanent lifestyle change," Onunkwo said.

That's the key phrase: "lifestyle change."

Diet fads, fat-burning pills and starving yourself don't do the trick.

Let's rewind back to my high school days.
    
For me, it was fast food trips at least once a day, and I was the classic couch potato. It's obvious why I was so out of shape and weighed 315 pounds.

I made every excuse in the book.

It wasn't a low metabolism or bad genetics, it was my life habits. I was the problem.

I tried the complicated diet fads and ended up losing weight only to gain more back.

Like Onunkwo, I made a lifestyle change, and you can too.

"Just make small steps," Onunkwo said. "Change your eating habits, cut out some of the soda, maybe exercise a little more frequently, two or three times a week. Start there. Once you get used to that, once you start seeing some results, then that will motivate you to continue towards making new changes and encourage you to make it a permanent change. Starting small will lead to bigger changes."

The idea is simple but requires hard work and effort. The hard work and effort require the true desire to change. The desire to change has to come from you.

You need more than just a resolution.

The journey to B.N. Shape is just beginning for Lafayette residents Jared Bond and Terri Staley.

They responded to a call out in December of last year in hopes to show all of you who are thinking about losing weight that no matter male or female, or how old you are, it's never too late.

In part two of "More Than a Resolution" we'll share their stories and how you too can B.N. Shape .

To contact Dr. Dozie or to learn more about the basics of living a healthy lifestyle, please visit his blog.   He can also be reached through his fitness lifestyle brand, B.N. Shape Clothing, and through B.N. Shape Clothing's Facebook page.