It’s Snack Time!

It’s the middle of the afternoon. At this point, you’ve probably been preparing reports, exchanging emails with colleagues who are sitting one cubicle away, and tapping your fingernails on your desk for going on seven hours. In short, you are bored out of your mind. So — besides that crushing sense of ennui that makes you feel like your only hope is to flee the building and keep running until you end up at a winery in northern California where you’ll get a job harvesting grapes because that is honest work that makes you feel like you accomplished something at the end of the day — how does your body react to this boredom?

It craves a snack, obviously, which in turn sets in motion an internal battle. Your heart keeps telling you to go buy a Snickers, but your head won’t shut up about a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips, etc. So you just sit there, paralyzed. Until exactly 3:23 pm, when all of the sudden your resolve disappears and you grab some change out of your wallet and march over to the vending machine like some sort of high-fructose-corn-syrup-seeking robot.

Does this same thing happen to you every day? A new study says you’re not alone. Apparently 3:23 pm is the time when people are most likely to give into their temptations. Maybe this is happening to you right this very second, and you’re just moments away from buying some cookies? Well, here’s a little something to erase any temptation you might be struggling with:

Look at that frightening tower of Oreo creme! I can’t stop imagining it snaking its way through my veins and into my heart… Maybe we should just have some celery sticks instead. Anyone want to split some ants on a log?

Photo via Flickr