Doritos with hummus, Doritos with hot sauce, even broken bits of Cool Ranch Doritos on my organic field greens. I must have inhaled three big bags in five days, mouthful after mouthful, a lapse into nonstop snacking that left my fingers orange, my belly bloated and my spirit dulled by more artificial flavors than I normally consume in a year.

It's over now. I'm home. Cool Ranch Doritos are not welcome in my house even though they have their own Facebook page. After a shaky but short-lived withdrawal, I find myself able to go hours at a time without thinking about how much I miss them. I'm back on track, my brief but humbling experience with binging has passed. But what should I have done when I was under the spell of splurging, when I couldn't pass my sister's pantry without detouring into that siren sack of Doritos for one more handful, one more faux flavor fix?

For answers, I turned to Valerie Berkowitz, director of Nutrition at the Center for Balanced Health in New York City, an expert in low-carb living. If you find yourself in binging hell, the typical response is to think, "Oh, well, I'll give in to this indulgence ... and just start eating right tomorrow." DON'T do that, Berkowitz says.

"Don't wait until tomorrow," she insists. "If you slip and fall on the street, do you sit there for the rest of the day?"

I might, if I had my Cool Ranch Doritos next to me, but that's not the right answer. "When you eat junk food," says Berkowitz, "the best way to recovery is to eat a huge salad, clear broth soup with vegetables or protein, or grilled vegetables with fish, chicken or turkey to help get back on the plan immediately."

I know she's right, so why am I thinking how good it would taste to float some crumbled Doritos right into the clear broth? No, no, no! The key to overcoming the urge to splurge is positive, proactive thinking.

"Think this, not that," says Berkowitz. Ditch the all-or-nothing mindset, and think positive. Think focus, commitment, drive and fortitude. Be "The Little Engine That Could," she says — not the Dorito-deranged slacker who can't — and create Eat-to-Win strategies that get you back on track immediately. Here are some of her tastiest:

— After eating a trigger food, hunger for more can quickly attack your body. The best thing to do is to eat the nutrients that were lacking in the trigger food itself.

— Move your body by doing some enjoyable activity. Take a walk, ride a bike, escape to a yoga class. That helps you refocus your attention off the splurge and back onto the positive.

— Journal! Write down your feelings about your indulgence. Was it worth it? Were you stressed? Did it soothe you? Then plan how you will do things differently next time. (My plan? Next visit I will throw a fit if my dear brother-in-law dares walk in with a party-size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos.)

What doesn't work after a splurge — as counter-intuitive as this sounds — is to cut calories or reduce fat. That only makes you want more junk food, Berkowitz says, and leaves you hungrier. Instead of depriving yourself, which results in rebound eating, indulge yourself in a little treat — chocolate, wine, ice cream — to satisfy your desire to live and enjoy eating. Then go back to a smart eating plan that focuses on high-fiber, low-carb foods, including metabolism-boosting foods such as avocados, coconut, fish, spices and tea.

Have you cured yourself of binging? How did you do it? Email me at myenergyexpress@aol.com and share your story.

EAT THIS UP! COLOR ME CONCERNED

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, synthetic food dyes should be banned. They are suspect, risky and unnecessary. Cool Ranch Doritos contain Red 40, Blue 1 and Yellow 5. I rest my chips.

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! THEY'RE GLUTEN-FREE, TOO

"DORITOS COOL RANCH (R) Flavored Tortilla Chips are a unique combination of great taste, great crunch and good fun (TM) rolled into one great chip." — www.fritolay.com

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.comMyEnergyExpress@aol.com.