The kids and I are making caramel popcorn (is it awful of me to make a treat that Josh doesn't really like and that Ellie can't eat?). Harrison wanted popcorn and well, everything is better with sugar on it in my book. Since I actually dusted off my treadmill and used it for the first time in I'm not saying how long, caramel popcorn sounded like a well-deserved treat. So then I got thinking, using the treadmill wouldn't be so bad if I could EAT caramel popcorn while walking. To take it one step further, I decided it might be fun to figure out at what rate I could eat the popcorn to generate a zero net gain of calories (number of calories being burned from exercising equals number of calories being eaten). In an effort to avoid serious boredom, I will just give you the results of my nearly useless math word problem (I changed my mind; I WILL subject you to my tedious train of thought). Assuming I used the treadmill for 1 hour at a rate of 3.5 miles per hour (slow, I know, but you gotta remember I'm eating popcorn at the same time), I burn about 400 calories. One cup of caramel popcorn is approx. 225 calories and each cup contains roughly 80 popped kernels (for the record, that wasn't an easy statistic to figure out, it required some serious googling). I can eat 1 3/4 cups of popcorn within the hour I am on the treadmill and not increase my overall calorie intake for the day. That means I can eat 2.34 kernels of popcorn every minute. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it :) And why oh why don't high school math classes have useful math word problems like mine?
So if you live in the area and want to spare me some time on the treadmill, let me know and I can send some caramel popcorn your way. I made waaaay tooo much.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Why did I have to ruin it?
Posted by Kristen at 12:53 PM
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3 comments:
I'm trying to decide if you have waaayy too much time on your hands, or if you are a masochist! At 2.34 kernels of popcorn a minute, I think I'll take jelly beans... Or york peppermint patties... Or - well, you get the picture. Hug those babies for their grandma and grandpa!
You crack me up...Sodoku is enough for me but I guess you have to make up your own word problems to get some brain work in the day. That was entertaining, however, and if I ever get a treadmill I will rememeber how much carmel popcorn I can eat while walking =)
Now I have a good reason to set up a visiting teaching appointment. Got any carmel corn left? How's next Tuesday sound? Seriously?
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