I am ready to lose weight.

Whatever came before this had real reasons behind it — a hard stretch, stress, medication, a body doing what bodies do. None of that is a verdict you're required to carry into today.

What readiness looks like on the first Tuesday is unremarkable. Breakfast actually eaten. One journey walked instead of driven. Lights out before midnight. Nothing anyone would photograph.

The part worth guarding is week three, once the novelty is gone and the numbers have barely moved. People who last aren't more disciplined than anyone else. They're just less cruel to themselves on the flat stretches.