by Ethan Johnson
March 24, 2006

I have been trying to train my mind - and by extension, my body - to resist the urge to eat snacks between meals. Having tipped the scales at my record highest weight this past week, I am motivated to reverse the trend. I am aware of my bad habit of snacking for the sake of having something to do, not to survive.

I find it interesting how quickly my mind can adapt to changes in the environment. The company microwave disappeared one day, and I immediately lost interest in eating microwaved foods. I made the mental adjustment that I would have to start bringing something else for lunch that does not require the use of a microwave. The microwave has been replaced with a newer model, but I'm still not interested.

The vending machines in my office have been replaced and upgraded, and are serviced by another vendor. I went to try out one of the new offerings, and the dollar bill acceptor unit is not working. It doesn't even try to pull in the bill. It might as well be welded shut.

Once again, my mind made the adjustment. No snacking, at least not out of the vending machine. Every once in awhile I will try to feed a dollar bill into the machine (for no good reason whatsoever), and each time I am rejected.

Today the vending machine person was here, and was using a device to either check or adjust the prices for all of the goodies that haven't been selling. I haven't noticed any change in the volume of what is carried in the machine since it was installed several weeks ago. (Another incentive to not buy anything from that machine.) After the service person went away, I tried to feed a bill in again just to see if the problem was resolved. Nope, still welded shut.

This machine has a labeling system that allows the vendor to mark selections as "low fat", "low calorie", and "heart healthy". I noticed more of those indicators. The prices may even have dropped on some stagnant items to drive interest.

I wonder how long it will take the vendor to realize that nobody is buying anything because the machine isn't accepting dollar bills.

I didn't tell the vendor to fix it. Why invite the temptation? <EM>