Magical i think that is a very brilliant thought. You can't have any excuse for putting food in your mouth if you are wearing a face mask. But because they tend to be unpleasant to wear i bet its not something you could do for very long but it might be enough to get her out of the habit of just picking up food and putting it into her mouth without a second thought.

Serenity compulsive eating is different to impulsive eating.

If it were me I'd try to put myself in a frame of mind that this food is not available to me. Act like a salesperson at the GAP, just because you fold the shirts doesn't mean you get to sample them lol. I know it must be hard if others are sampling and eating as they go and that's probably the real problem here, to see everyone else allow that freedom to themselves.

Instead of gum can you try mints? Or use Listerine mouthwash which is very strong and can you off anything lol. I find Cinammon Altoids to be really strong and I can't imagine mixing them with any other foods. Cinammon in general curbs my impulse to eat anything and I often have cinammon tea in the afternoon.

thanks everyone :) I've been crazy busy and not really posting the last few days....i'm going to try the idea of the cinnamon mints and see how that works