Not a recommended weight loss regimen

Well, I just dropped four pounds in less than three days. And despite the fact that I need to lose a lot more than that, I cannot recommend a bout of gastroenteritis as the way to do it.

I won't inflict the details on you -- Lord knows I wish they hadn't been inflicted on me -- but suffice it to say that I went through an entire roll of TP in under 48 hours, probably doubled my usual water bill through flushing the john about 20 times more often than usual, and used up three days of PTO that I haven't accrued yet.

On the up side, my food costs are really low this week. Being home for three days, I didn't get my usual Subway fix for lunch, and my consumption of other foodstuffs has been virtually nil. You know I'm really sick when I have zero interest in chocolate, cookies, and even Coke, for Pete's sake!

One of the most sobering aspects of this little interlude was looking up viral gastroenteritis on mayoclinic.com and realizing that when they say it can be serious (well, "deadly" is actually the term they used) for "older adults", that now means me.