Deep Thoughts...

..."To pee or not to pee. That is the question. You know the answer." -AJ 7/21/07

Here's a shocker...

...I hate the IRS! (And I'm not too fond of TurboTax either these days)

Long story short...Two years ago, after doing my tax return with TurboTax, I recieved a larger than normal tax return. At the time, I thought nothing of it. We usually got decent refunds each year and while this was larger, I thought it was mainly due to the larger salaries my wife and I were earning. Well, my refund went back down to normal levels and now I find out why...Turbotax took both my wife's income and my income and counted it all as mine. Then it deduced that I paid too much in social security as a result and refunded it back to me. So now I get a letter asking me to pay back the refund I took in error back in March 2006 PLUS Interest on said refund PLUS a "Late Payment Penalty" for not paying it back sooner (how was I supposed to pay it back sooner when I NEVER KNEW I HAD TO PAY IT BACK UNTIL THIS MONTH!)

My tax friend said I should call the friendly folks at the IRS to explain to them my error and to ask them if they would consider removing the interest and late payment penalties and I would gladly pay the back taxes I obviously owed. What a painful experience!

First, the IRS has a telephone prompt system from the 1980's...It took me a good 10 minutes to weave my way through the various prompts to reach a live person. It was almost like they were hoping I would give up trying to speak to a live person and just pay thier extortion money.

Second, once I got through the prompts, I was put into a Musak queue that lasted an additional 25 minutes "while I waited for the next available agent". Once again, they seemed to want me to give up.

Now I get to speak to a live agent after waiting a good 1/2 hour plus. Already fired up, I start to explain my plight (My defense being, "I relied on TurboTax and it screwed me"). I explained how a CPA friend confirmed the IRS was right and I was ready to pay the back taxes but thought they could help out on the interest and penalty portion. The helpful agent explains that I will have to fill out one form to request abatement on the interest (Form 843) and send a seperate letter requesting the removal of a penalty. She also said to pay the full amount (including interest and penalties) and ask for the refund later, so I do not accrue any further penalties and interest while they decide whether they should grant my requests...

I have no problem paying the backtaxes. That was, in essence, my fault. And if it comes down to it, I will pay the interest (although I'm going after TurboTax to pick that up in the end...it was thier error that resulted in the Fed not getting thier money on time). But I'll be damned if anyone is going to pay the government for assessing a late payment penalty when it was they who never notified me (until this month) that I was late in getting them thier money...

And people wonder why government gets a bad name...

Poll for Vegas...

Not giving away too much of the back story here, but I thought I would poll the general blog reading audience.

You can pretty much guess the fun "discussion" I had with my wife the other night...

I'll fill you in on more of the story later...and feel free to elaborate on your poll answer in the comments section. I fully expect to be lambasted by a certain section of my readership...

Followup on the goatee thing...

Jeez...I never thought there would be so much interest about my decision to grow facial hair...

The answer for now is that I am keeping the goatee (should have some fun followup progress photos on the site as well) for now...

Most of you said to follow my wife's lead and her silence on the subject leads me to believe she is OK with it...

If I decide to get rid of it, it will be because the darn thing is itchy and the hairs rub against my lips and it is generally annoying...but I like the look, so I'll keep it for now...

Thanks to 77% of you who agree with me...

Weigh In - Week 17

So...the positive is that I am exactly at 40 lbs of weight loss...4/5 to my original goal...2/3 to my aggressive goal....Milestone #4 reached before I hit the date to Milestone #2...

The negative is that I only lost 1 lb this week. I know the lbs come off more slowly as you come closer to your goals, but it is a little disheartening to not see the 3 - 5 lbs per week weight loss numbers. As I write this, I know I must sound like the guy who's pissed that he only won $20 Million in Powerball instead of $120 Million...When you've been posting big numbers for so long, it's a little sad to realize you're probably not going to lose 3 lbs in a single week anymore.

I did pretty well Monday through Friday this week. Got my 3 workouts in as usual (I must give props to Flip This Body for making me go to the gym on Friday to check my weight so I could give one final update to her weight loss challenge...FYI...I won with 34 lbs lost between 4/1 and 7/23). Food choices were pretty normal as well. Kashi cereal for breakfast (highly recommend the GoLean Crunch cereal line), salads for lunch, and whatever Carolyn feels like making for dinner.

Unfortunately, my wife and I decided to throw a summer party this past weekend (first summer party in over 5 years) and I show little self control during parties where I don't have to drive. I was going to write a separate post on this, but I'll just cram it all into one. Drinking is evil...pure evil...I still love to do it...but I always regret it in the end...Here are the reasons why from a pure weight loss perspective:

1. Alcohol is more calorie dense than carbs, fat, etc....so you start losing right there.
2. Alcohol is usually imbibed through beer (i.e. liquid bread) so you have the added benefit of taking alcohol in through a carb rich medium. Not helpful.
3. Alcohol, in addition to making you feel happy, makes you feel hungry. The combination of both happy and hungry usually equals bad food choices for me. Especially during a party...my total inebriation usually coincides with the same point in time that dessert is served. Soooo...I usually end up eating a dozen cookies, candy bars, or cookies with candy bars somehow wedged into them. Not helpful.
4. Finally, my total inebriation usually results in some form of day after hangover. This ranges from a splitting headache and extreme nausea to slight nausea. Even in the slight nausea stage, my mind and body usually need sugar liquids and foods high in saturated fats to eventually make me feel normal again. Maybe that isn't the best way to cure a hangover, but it usually works for me.

So there you go. Besides causing you to make horrible dating choices, alcohol also causes you to make horrible eating choices. And you probably don't want to attempt a cardio machine during or anytime after imbibing either.

So, that is what I'm chalking my poor performance up this week. Besides eating way to many Doritios and Lime Bars the night of the party, I also had 3 helpings of sausage and peppers the day after to make myself feel better...

But I am at the 40 lbs marker...Go Team!

Observations at the Gym...

I've been thinking of putting a post together about gym observations, but Spidey at Lose Weight Now has beat me to the punch in a very funny way.

Here's the rant that hit home for me:

"Women that wear a thong and a tiny bikini-top and then
glare at anyone that looks at them? Not to mention that when these ladies sweat
they end up with big wet spots on their crotch area that give everyone a pretty
good view of the mythical "camel-toe." So why do women act amazed, p*ssed-off,
or hurt when everyone is staring at them when they are bouncing around the gym?
While there are some really hot women that dress provacatively, at least half
the time we are talking about people who are at least ten or twenty pounds too
heavy for whatever they are wearing. Same thing goes for people who walk around
with their stomachs hanging out. Women with flabby guts should not be wearing
those tube tops. That goes double for fat guys."

Not to say that I am checking out the women at the gym, but some people just put it all out there and are begging to be gawked at. Instead of shooting me a dirty look, try dressing a little more normal next time. Thanks.

(and thanks to Spidey!)

What works for me? - Food Edition

About 2 weeks ago, I posted a bunch of tips having mainly to do about working out, but never got around to posting what works for me on the food end of things. Today's post is to cover that aspect of my weight loss routine.

I may end up rehashing some thoughts from previous posts, but all are good ways that keep me on the right track:

1.) Always, always eat breakfast. I don't care if I'm running late in the morning. I don't care if there is nothing in the house (Stop by the local convenience store). If there is one thing I've read on every weight loss article, it's EAT A HEALTHY BREAKFAST! There are simple reasons why. Breakfast starts up your metabolism for the day. You will almost certainly burn through your breakfast (unlike that late night snack). You will not have a craving for a chocolate bar from the vending machine mid-morning.

2.) Speaking of breakfast, try to make the meal high in fiber and protein. Fiber makes you feel full and protein makes your metabolism burn better. My favorite breakfasts are Quaker "Weight Control" Oatmeal and Kashi brand cereals. Both are high in both categories and both taste good as well. For a short while, I started to eat Fiber One bars on the way to work as well.

3.) Moving on to morning / afternoon snacks. I was a Coke junkie at work. I would have 1-2 Cokes per day from the vending machine. Not only bad for me, but I was dropping roughly $8 / week into the machine (I should have been smarter and just bought a case). How did I change? I now stop at the local grocery store in the beginning of the week for lunch and to pick up snacks for the week. I generally buy nuts (good fiber, protein, unsaturated fats), fruit (bananas and oranges because not as perishable), and a gallon of Diet Green Tea. Sometimes I'll mix in dried fruit and low fat string cheese. The point is to always have "good snacks" at the ready. I even have idiot co-workers who try to tempt me by leaving chocolate on my desk, but I really have no desire to eat it as long as I have something else ready to enjoy in a healthy way.

3a.) Point #3 also applies to my home life as well. The only difference is that I can eat even better "healthy" foods like blueberries and raspberries.

4.) Lunch. A have a few tricks here. One is to workout near your work. Use your lunch hour to workout. Instead of dropping 500 calories down your gullet, why not drop 500 calories and burn 400 calories. Much better option to me. Don't forgo lunch to workout though...bad idea...you don't want to starve yourself because you will only end up gaining the lbs back at some point.

4a.) Lunch. Option 2. Salads. In this day and age, I have no excuse to not eat salad. So many restaurants, supermarkets, etc. are not only selling salads, but selling TASTY salads. Go to Boston Market and try the chopped salad topped with chicken. That things tastes good and fills you up. Same thing for the Mango Chicken Salad at Baja Fresh. These aren't the tomato, onion, cucumber, lettuce salads that Mom served. For women, this should be a no brainer. For men, I understand the stigma of going out with co-worker buddies and being the only salad eater in a table of burger eaters. My manly answer to you is to suck it up and order the salad. After the first few times of doing this, the comments will die down and you can eat your salad in peace. Last note on salads: I don't put dressing on my salads (like my meals mostly dry) and I usually don't eat the croutons either (or at least eat less of them).

5.) Dinner. Since I follow the points above pretty religiously, I don't kill myself over dinner. This is also due to the fact that my wife is now the preparer of said meal and I don't want to discourage her culinary adventures. When I buy frozen bag meals, I usually try to find low fat, low cal options and Trader Joes is usually a good option for that. I also have become a big fan of iced green tea and will have that zero calorie, metabolism enhancing drink with my meal.

6.) After dinner. I usually follow my points on snacks here as well. I'll usually have fruit at this point. For the summer that usually means blueberries, grapes, oranges, peaches. My guilty pleasure (if you want to call it that) is chocolate milk. I used to drink 20+ oz. of chocolate milk a night, but have cut it down to 8 oz. every other night. And I've been a 1% Milk drinker since childhood, so I figure it's not THAT bad...

So that's my food story. As I've said in the past, I really don't believe in the whole "point" concept. I just try to stick to a loose plan that I can live with. I'm definitely not starving myself and the weight continues to come off, so I'll stick with it.

Guys in a Woman's World

FYI.

I have started a new blog listing on the right titled, "weight loss blogs by guys". I think the title is pretty self explanatory, but I thought I would give some context and ask for some help.

In my quest, I have looked to other bloggers for ideas and inspiration. While the female crowd has provided that, there are certain issues that really require another guy's perspective.

For whatever reason, most men do not like to blog about weight loss. It is definitely a female dominated section of the blogosphere. Even the men's section of the fat fighting bloggers contains mostly dead or outdated links. I feel a little lonely from a gender perspective.

So, as I find them, I will post links to blogs that are written by men and are focused around weight loss, diet, and exercise. At this point, I'm not even going to discriminate on quality of content. I just ask that you fit the following criteria:

• Male
• Blog mainly about weight loss, diet, and / or exercise
• Blog at least once a week
• Have posts current to the last week

If you are someone or know someone who fits this criteria, send a note my way (through comments or email (jfarrlley AT gmail DOT com).

Weigh In - Week 16

Another week, another 2 lbs loss...

So now I'm where I should have been 2 weeks ago...Don't focus on the negative though...I'm only 1 lbs away from my fourth milestone and I haven't even gotten to my second milestone date yet (although that one is fast approaching).

For full disclosure, I actually was more like 197.3 this week, but I've been measuring in full lbs and I'm not going to begrudge myself a little rounding error now and then...

Let's see...what notes can I share:

• I did the obligatory 3 workouts this week. The cardio for me is getting easier and I'm pushing the dial up on that side of the coin. On the other hand, the strength conditioning is either getting harder or more tedious. I really don't look forward to that portion of the workout although it probably would get me the most benefit from a weight loss perspective (muscle mass increase = metabolism increase). If there is an area I should focus on, it would be strength training.
• Food choices were pretty good as well. Didn't even eat out that much, because the workouts had to occur over lunch to fit everything in. The one major fall was on Saturday night at a neighbor's party. I always tend to overdrink in certain social situations and this party was no different. I probably had 6-8 beers (maybe more). Of course, after drinking a bit, I tend to want to eat and the effects of being hungry and buzzed causes me to make extremely poor food choices, such as scarfing down 10 or so mini-Kit Kats or a half dozen hush puppies. When I unofficially weighed myself on Friday, I actually weighed in at 197, so I actually gained .3 lbs over the weekend...I count myself lucky though...

So, I wanted to be at an even 40 lbs loss through 16 weeks, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. As long as the lbs are moving in the right direction, I'll stick with my extremely loose plan and keep positive!

Linking

Adding a site to my "blogs you should read" area and I thought I would give some love in a seperate post as well:

Big Britches

I note this for 2 reasons:

1. 1. The site is pretty good as weight loss blogs go. I like the little trick she pulled in the visual interpretation of her future weight loss (see pic above, but go to her site to see how she did it).
2. I use feedburner to check my site stats from time to time and actually got some traffic from this site I never heard of before. So, I went over and it was awesome to see someone link to me without a solicitation. (Hint: If you're regularly checking out my site and have a blog of your own, it wouldn't hurt to add me to your blog list, would it?)

That's it for now. Thanks again for the link Figi!