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Binge eating.
If that's what you'll call it, excessive eating. If I see food, or think that it's okay to have some, I eat it all if plenty's in sight. It's like clearing your plate, to me. I rarely toss anyrhing, so I just... stuff myself. Any advice on killing gluttony?
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Patience, love, and self-acceptance are my tools to combat my old habits here. My first suggestion would be to try to start replacing terms like "killing gluttony," with, "discovering new ways." Be really nice to yourself.
If you are being mindful of your actions, you will have the opportunity to ask yourself at the beginning of the craving if you really need to eat stuff, instead of kicking yourself after the cravings have been satisfied... much easier said than done, but with practice I feel that I'm making progress.
Try adjusting portion sizes if you can. One thing I found very helpful for myself is simply to be disciplined when shopping. That way you only have to summon willpower for 1 hour a week instead of trying to resist just walking to the kitchen all the time.
Oh yeah, smaller bowls/plates. Simple but a huge difference. My parents eat ice cream out of the dishes you use for sauces at the table. If I am not very hungry I put dinner on a salad plate. If you can't cook less then put part of it aside specifically for lunch the next day or a snack.
I'm a recovered alcoholic in Alcoholics Anonymous which has a 12 Step program. There is also an organisation called Overeaters Anonymous which works along the same principles that I have a friend whose a member of it (he's a member of A.A. and O.A.).
Food can be used as a drug for some people to change the way you feel. If you feel anxious, restless, irritable, and discontented and then you stuff yourself with food, maybe you'll feel less anxious?
So, if this is the case, you're using food like a drug. However the food is just a symptom of the real problem which is the anxiousness, restless, irritability, and discontentedness.
I believe a Buddhist practise could help with that, particularly the ethical life (it'll give some peace) and meditation; meditation is used by most recovery programs as a part to play in relapse prevention.
Just my thoughts; I'm not implying anything; I don't know you or your situation.
Do not put food in your mouth while the remnants of the last mouthful can still be detected.
chew your food until you cannot tell, from the feel of food in your mouth, what that particle of food was. (in other words, if you're eating broccoli stem, and it still feels a bit like broccoli stem as you swallow it - you haven't chewed it sufficiently.)
Do not watch tv while eating.
Drink water with your meal, mixed with one teaspoonful of honey, and one teaspoonful of cider vinegar.
these will help.
I was dangerously underweight because every time I ate I was sick, so I stopped eating. When we discovered I had celiac disease and I went gluten-free, I turned into a major glutton - I ate everything I could, whenever I wanted, because EATING turned into a joyful activity instead of something to fear.
Motivation for eating is a big deal, I think.
In the liver cleansing diet, if you need to clear gallstones, it recommends 1 litre of apple juice per day, for a week.
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" has a lot of good sense to it....
http://www.pureinsideout.com/apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.html
http://www.liverdoctor.com/index.php?page=liver-problems&subpage=gall-bladder
(this last one is long....scroll down to 'natural treatments')
Remember, feelings condition intention which creates action, which in this case is the eating; so by purely tackling the symptom (the eating), this is leaving the feeling part just the same. And if we're feeling bad enough, at some stage we'll repeat the same negative behaviour which we think relieves that problem.
Am I making sense?
Begin to eat sensibly and mindfully, following the physical practices recommended - but simultaneously, address your relationship with food, eating, and the original source of the increased desire to eat....
Any foods, really. Sweets especially. I have had a bit of an eating problem for about a year, before though I didn't eat at all then I suddenly started to eat and eventually I ate a lot, a lot.
Taking an interest in studying this important field might actually give you something to DO that fills the time that normally makes you
unhappy/dissatisfied and will give you a goal.
Changing habits works best when you really know why, not just following an vague idea and inclination.