susieshakes

1. SETS (language of sets, operations on sets, Venn diagrams)
2. REAL NUMBERS (number line, intervals, absolute value, operations in set of real numbers)
3. FUNCTIONS (properties of function, graph of function and its transformations, linear function, quadratic function, equations, inequalities, systems of simultaneous equations and inequalities of the 1st and 2nd degree)
4. TRIGONOMETRY (trigonometric ratios in a right triangle, properties of trigonometric ratios, simple trigonometric identities, applications of trigonometry in geometry)
5. PLANE GEOMETRY (plane figures, vectors, isometric mappings, angles in a circle, area and perimeter of a figure, Pythagorean theorem, similarity of figures)

I’ve attended three lessons so far and I’m hooked up already…

There’s a Semana Flamenca event taking place where I live next week that’s an opportunity to buy a pair of flamenco shoes (there’ll even be a lottery so one lucky individual will get one for free), attend extra lessons at different levels, see two concerts, taste a range of Spanish wines, have a look at souvenirs from Andalusia, meet people from Spain and more. It looks like it’s going to be really exciting – I’m just trying to sign up for the lessons and get the concert tickets!

All right. You already know that a quarter-cup of sunflower seeds contains 90.5% of your GDA for vitamin E (which is quite cool as it protects cellular and molecular components like your brain cells and prevents free radicals from oxidizing cholesterol that is able to adhere to blood vessel walls and initiate the process of atherosclerosis only after it’s been oxidized), more than 30% of your recommended daily magnesium intake (in many nerve cells, magnesium blocks the calcium channel and keeps our nerves relaxed by preventing calcium from rushing into the nerve cell and activating the nerve; if our diet provides us with too little magnesium, the nerve cell can start sending too many messages and cause excessive contraction, which in turn leads to high blood pressure, muscle spasms and migraine headaches), phytosterols (compounds found in plants that have a chemical structure very similar to cholesterol with so many beneficial effects that they have been extracted from soybean, corn, and pine tree oil and added to processed foods, such as “butter”-replacement spreads, which are then touted as cholesterol-lowering “foods”), 30% of your recommended daily selenium intake (it’s incorporated at the active site of a protein called glutathione peroxidase, which is one of the body’s most powerful antioxidant enzymes and when its levels are too low, toxic molecules are not disarmed and wreak havoc on any cells with which they come in contact, damaging their cellular DNA and promoting the development of cancer cells) and MORE.

However, the trouble is that you’ve never quite been able to eat your sunflower seeds one by one instead of shovelling them into your mouth in enormous quantities. It’s OK; so do I. They just never seemed to taste the same when eaten one by one and, being concerned about my waist girth just as much as I am about my blood pressure, I gave them up completely at one point.

Recently, tempted by their fantafabulous health benefits, I made up my mind to rediscover the difficult art of eating them one by one. I started by only allowing myself a handful at a time thinking that even if I do put everything in my mouth at once, I’m not going to consume more than I would if I ate them at a slower rate. However, according to my assumptions, I subconsciously divided the single regular handful into several smaller handfuls getting the same amount of pleasure as I would if I divided five regular handfuls into five regular handfuls. When I had my handful the next day, I divided it into even smaller portions.

A small tip for everyone who decides to pursue the same goal: this morning, I discovered that when I smear something skin-nourishing all over my face, I can only have as much as I can place between my thumb and index finger at a time. Otherwise, the seeds keep sticking to my chin and trust me, they don’t taste any better when there’s a thin layer of Tibetan facial mask on each.

My methods seem to be working wonders – it’s been more than a week and I still haven’t finished my 7oz packet even though I DO keep nibbling!