I was at a birthday party a few weeks ago, and, after a couple of civilised hours chatting, sipping wine and swaying elegantly (or so I liked to think) on the dance floor, I found myself alone beside the buffet table. Despite having eaten a balanced evening meal only a few hours before, I was inexplicably and irresistibly drawn, in my two-glasses-of-wine haze, to what seemed to me to be a resplendent cheese board and accompanying tapenade. I started modestly – just two small slithers of cheese, one thin slice of baguette and a spoonful of tapenade. So far so good.

But with no-one there to observe my greed, I soon returned to the table and re-filled my plate more generously. The food was tasty, but far too rich for a midnight snack. It was on my third and greediest trip, as I plugged a large chunk of bread slathered with cheese and tapenade into my mouth without even putting it on my plate that I had a moment of clarity: no longer an interested taste, this had become a fully fledged gorge. I wiped my lips and stopped there.

Let’s be honest: we’re all prone to a binge from time to time – at a party, on a dark winter’s evening at home alone, at a friend’s birthday brunch – when you leave your self-control at the door with your rain-sodden boots. There’s no need for us to discuss the reasons for it at length; more important is how to stop and pull yourself back into line, and quickly.

Following a period of feasting, whether morning or evening, it is all too easy to say “oh go on then” and reach for the next packet of chocolate biscuits. We’ve all done it. There’s something so dreadfully tempting in extending your already full stomach to the point of nausea – who knows why, though I’m sure there’s some science behind it. But this anarchic decadence is not inevitable, and if you halt it, you’ll both avoid that depressing tightness of your jeans’ waistband and feel exceedingly virtuous for days to come.

Here’s how …

1. Learn to recognise that “oh go on then” moment, when your hand reaches for another slice of bread and butter, even though your stomach is full. Watch yourself – are you eating very quickly so that you can’t feel the consequences until it’s too late? Listen to yourself – is the little voice in your head saying “Well, now I’ve started …”? There you have it, the point of compulsion has been reached.

2. Stop eating and start thinking. Pause before you take the next slice, or even bite, and think for a moment about how you are feeling. Is your stomach already painfully full? How will you really feel if you eat whatever it was you are planning to eat – happy and satiated, or slightly revolted and definitely disappointed at your lack of self-control? Most likely the latter. By focusing on that feeling of potential revulsion, it’s very unlikely you’ll eat anything else at all. 

3. Now clean your palate. If you’re in a cafe, order a cup of black decaf coffee. If you’re at home, make yourself a cup of peppermint tea and drink whilst still scalding hot. If you’re at friend’s party or in a bar, find a glass of water (preferably sparkling) and drink it slowly. Once finished, your taste for food will be significantly diminished. 

4. Observe the food in front of you with a deconstructive eye. The focaccia is just salt, oil and white flour; the cheese is fat, salt and probably some food colouring; the cake is sugar, eggs, butter, flour and chocolate; crisps are mounds of the cheapest oil there is and reconstituted potato mash – how hideous, especially on the scale you will see before you. You won’t want to eat another bite. 

5. Go and do something else. If you’re at home, have a shower – brush your teeth even. At a party, hit the dance floor. Or maybe it’s simply time to go home or outside. And if it is, walk wherever you need to go as briskly as your full belly will let you.  

6. Once you’ve stopped, set yourself a minimum amount of time until you will eat again. Leaving it four hours is realistic, leaving it seven is not (unless you’re about to go to bed). When you do eat, keep it light, raw and crunchy – an apple and some cucumber will suffice. 

7. Take pleasure in being more self-disciplined than everyone around you. Whilst you sit there, sipping your mineral water or coffee, watch other people eating. After a certain point, very few of them, if any, will be really enjoying it. Having recognised the moment of compulsion in yourself, you’ll start to see it in others too.