that one time i got all mathy

Remember sitting in algebra class, wondering what the heck was Mr. Jensen talking about and thinking how you were never ever going to use this stuff in real life?

Well guess who used algebra?  Me.  Yep.  Me.  IN MY HEAD even, not on paper.

Whoa.

On Breanne's birthday last week, we had cake.  And maybe I haven't mentioned it, but when I joined the gym and started going to zumba a few months ago, I also joined weight watchers.  Wanted to hit the health and fitness thing hard--boom! and double boom!

Weight watchers lets you eat whatever you want to eat, but you have to keep a record of everything you eat.  And that means figuring out the points that are determined by the fat, protein, carbs, and fiber.  It sounds really complicated but with an iPhone and the weight watchers app, it's pretty easy. 

Although you do have to figure out portion sizes.  And that's where the algebra came in.

Jessie made a double layer yellow cake with yellow frosting.  Cory served it.  And in my head, I figured out that we'd eaten 12 pieces, which was three-fourths of the cake.  And then I did some math (3/4x = 12, which simplified down to x = 12 divided by 3/4, and then x = 12*4/3, and then x = 48/3, and finally x = 16), which means there were 16 pieces of cake so I ate 1/16 of a cake. 

The part that surprised me was that before I did that algebra in my head, I got a quick impression that since we ate 3/4 of the cake and that was 12 pieces, there must have been 16 pieces of cake total.  And then, the second big surprise was when I figured it out using algebra and--I GOT THE SAME ANSWER BOTH TIMES!!!

I was so impressed that I got all mathy like that.  Mr. Jensen would have been so amazed and proud of me.

And, in case you're wondering, I've lost 20 pounds since the first of November when I started weight watchers and zumba.  About a pound a week.  Not too bad, right, and math too.  Whoa.