From skwigg's journal:
The cool thing is, you can't go wrong. Suppose the dam does break and you eat a whole big bunch of food (because you can do anything you want!), ask yourself: How did that feel while I was doing it? How did I feel 10 minutes afterward? An hour afterward? The next morning? What did my stomach feel like? What kind of thoughts was I having before, during, and after? Was it worth it? Would I like to do it again right now?!
No? Maybe it kind of sucked, and you barely tasted it, and you feel like you ate an adult llama, and now you and the llama have to fit into pants together. NOTICE THAT. Before you start eating, get really clear on how you want to feel afterward. Sure you could eat all that stuff in one shot and experience the pain and discomfort. Or you could enjoy one serving of ice cream after dinner and feel happy and satisfied. You get to choose!
If you slow down and stay mindful about it, you realize that some of the foods you romanticized and felt powerless around...they don't even taste that good! The overeating experience is the same way. We build it up into this amazing, dangerous, rewarding experience in our mind, but the reality of it, if we stay grounded and focused on how it really feels, pretty much blows. The food is consumed in speedy daze we barely register, and then the fallout is very real, painful, and lingering. Wouldn't it make more sense to get mindful about the eating experience, be fully present, enjoy it, and then have no fallout?
Shifting the thought patterns and behaviors takes practice. It's not like flipping a switch where you then eat perfectly and live happily ever after, but the practice itself becomes rewarding. Every experience takes you closer to where you want to be, even and maybe especially the messy ones.