Choose your vices

We had some friends over this weekend — husband and wife, they’ll probably read this — and the husband: man, he’s lost weight. He looks fantastic.

It turns out he’s on a very specific diet, with a coach and all kinds of good stuff, where they send you some of your meals and you supplement with one or two things a day that you make yourself.

You also drink a massive amount of water, and you cut out all alcohol and starches —

Wait, I asked. Do you have to give up coffee?

Because I’ll be honest, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for me to drop a few pounds. Maybe more than a few. And there’s no better recommendation than seeing a friend who’s made it work.

But while I could give up almost everything I eat and drink in pursuit of a worthy goal without it feeling like an impossible sacrifice, the idea of cutting out coffee seems a bit too much.

Good news: It turns out coffee is not verboten. And while I’m not going to name the weight loss plan here — I haven’t decided yet for sure if …