Among all the eating disorders, the most common ones are anorexia nervosa and binge eating. Anorexic patients are those that eat practically nothing at all and lose excessive weight. Bulimia is the condition whereby patients binge-eat and then force their bodies to vomit all the food out after eating.

There is also a catch-all category, EDNOS for eating disorders. It covers a host of deviant eating behaviours for which no specific names have been given but otherwise have a common theme: an obsessive concern about food and body. EDNOS thus includes over-exercising in fear of gaining weight, excessive concerns over body shape, yo-yo dieting and over-emphasis on repeated cleansing.

An obssession over losing weight can result in a patient becoming a size-zero beanpole. Zero represents the body part size of an extremely underweight person. It is the dress size that anorexics dream of. In the fashion world, it is known that clothes hang better on a body shape that is slim. Some extremists have taken this to mean a body shape that fits into size zero clothes.

An unhealthy obsession is never a good thing. It occupies your mind such that you find that you cannot think of anything else other than your strive to be thin. If you want to prevent yourself gaining a size zero body shape, you have to learn to regain conscious control of your body. Neither extremes in weight, whether size zero or size one hundred, is advisable due to harmful consequences.

By restoring the act of eating food to the conscious level and focusing attention on the process, it is possible to break habits and unconscious forces that seem so powerful and be very destructive if you allow them to take over you. Some steps for conscious and purposeful eating are outlined below.

1. Choose a food item that will give you pleasure in terms of taste and appearance.

2. Put it in front of you, clear your mind of all other thoughts and let the odours and looks of the food fill your senses.

3. As you contemplate the food in front of you, focus your mind on the food that you are eating and taketake mental notes of any feedback from your senses as you eat, especially the first and the final bite. This may seem so simple, but it is not as easy as you may think.

4. As you take your first bite, chew the food slowly and thoroughly; deliberately slow down the process so your senses can consciously experience the various sensations of taste, aroma, and texture. Pause and try to receive feedback from your senses.

5. For the rest of the meal, proceed normally as you would with your meals. But remember to chew your food slowly and completely. Then, as you prepare to take your last bite, repeat what you did at the beginning of the meal. Be fully attentive and be absolutely onscious of every sensation.

Once you are done, sit back a moment and reflect. Ask yourself what proportion of time between the first and final bite you were conscious of your food, and what percentage you were thinking other thoughts.

Repetition is key. So you would need to perform this exercise once a day for seven days. You can vary the kind of food, but you must remain focused on the process. By having control over your thoughts, it is possible to retrain your mind.