Sometimes it can’t be avoided. I reached the upper end of my weight range, with ten days to go before our annual New York Bacchanal. In order to fit into my clothes and not feel guilt-ridden over eating ad libidem in the Big Apple, it was time for The Diet.

Rules of the Régime:

1. Breakfast, but no lunch. This works fine for me if I can stay home. If I have to be out and about, for some reason I always hit the bonk and have to eat.

2. Use as much energy as possible. Heat generated by looking at pix of Beautiful Men does not count. Rowing does.

3. No snacks between meals, but if there is to be a snack, it must be nuts. Nuts are a weight loss aid! Really! If you only eat one small handful, that is. And provided they are not enrobed in luscious chocolate, or transformed into buttery pralines…

4. Fantasizing about food is allowed (see #3), as long as it does not lead to actual illicit assignations with food items. No midnight trysts with that sexy wedge of wine-marbled cheddar.

5. Soup for dinner. This works great unless you fill up on bread and wine-marbled cheddar.

6. Jekyll-Linnet: I’ll only have one glass of wine with dinner.
Hyde-Linnet: Dream on. You’ll be sucking it up faster than a microfiber towel.
Jekyll-Linnet: That is so hurtful. I have good intentions.
Hyde-Linnet: How soon is dinner? I want to lave my gullet with Sauv Blanc.

7. Drink two extra glasses of water every day.

So far it’s working pretty well. Here are a few of my reducing meals…

Day 1: You might call this pasta sauce without the pasta. It’s a light braise of cannellini beans, carrots, onions, rapini and veggie sausage, with a sprinkling of Bellavitano from Wisconsin.

Day 2: Mushroom Barley soup garnished with spinach, arugula and a dusting of Romano. In order to appear more virtuous, I am not showing the cheeseboard that went with this.

Day 3: Udon noodle soup. This was made with tofu, mushrooms, carrots, a poached egg, kimchee, spinach, scallions and cilantro.

And the perfect wine to go with the udon soup? Roederer Brut from California, of course! This sparkling wine leans more toward the fruity than the yeasty end of the spectrum, and has a touch of grapey sweetness. It goes with just about anything, and it made our meager meal of soup feel like a feast.