Day 1: Prepare yourself mentally to spend a year feeling great and losing weight simultaneously

I am going to write this blog in chronological order, so that you can follow along with me and in one year, be well on the road to reaching your optimal weight.

Yes, you heard me, it's going to take you a year, perhaps more to reach your optimal weight (depending on where you're starting from, of course).

Why? Because you are not going to diet. You are going to gradually, gradually, gradually cut down on your eating, so much so that you won't even miss it. You're also going to increase your exercising gradually.

By the end of a year - 12 short months - you will have learned all you need to know to achieve your optimum weight, and you will have gotten started on a lifetime of fitness via your exercise program.

Why am I emphasizing the gradual nature of this program?

Because I am assuming that everyone reading this blog is someone who has failed at all their attempts at weight loss. Either you've failed entirely, not losing a pound, or you lost a lot of weight and have now gained it back and are in despairr.

I'm assuming that because it covers 70% of all dieters!

(The other 30% are, unfortunately, women who have already reached their optimum weight and keep dieting because they're overly concerned about their appearance. These are the women who obsess about every ounce of "overweight" they have. These women (and there some men in this category) need professional help to overcome this obsession.

****You want to be at your optimum weight not because of your appearance, but because of your health.****

This blog can help people who are healthy (no chronic diseases like diabetes) but are overweight because they can't control their appetite and have never acquired the habit of exercising.

I beeive people with mobility issues can benefit from this blog as well, only it will take twice as long. But by taking things slowly, you will succeed also.

The Manifesto

My original title for this blog (what the URL was going to be) was going to be Weight Loss Without Tears. But some jerk had co-opted that name 4 years ago, made one post, and then abandoned the blog. So since biking forms a large part of my program, I decided to call it the Solitary Cyclist. But someone had made off with that URL as well, and, again, had made a single post and then abandoned the blog. I can't tell you how much that irritates me! Seems to me that blogger should have a system where a blog has been inactive for over 4 years, and consists of less than 10 posts, it should be deleted and the name released for others to use.

In any event, three years ago, I was 120 pounds overweight. Today, I'm at my ideal weight. I achieved this not through paying good money to join Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but rather merely by cutting back on my food intake- very, very gradually - and taking up biking seriously.

You can do it too.

This blog will help you.