Avoiding Temptation

It seems like temptation is everywhere. Yet as I look back, I have not had all that many temptations. Here are a few things that I think have helped curb temptations:

1) Eating mandatory healthy snacks keeps me from feeling empty
2) Never shopping on an empty stomach
3) Never shoppping without a meal plan and a list (no wandering up and down aisles thinking this would be good for a dinner)
4) Keeping active. Commit to a hobby in place of TV.
5) Exercise helps me to get to sleep faster. This helps those late night cravings. If a I feel hungry, I think that I might as well go to bed so I can eat in the morning.
6) I normally drink some water or tea while winding down for the night. This helps curb late night cravings, as it keeps my stomach from feeling empty.
6) Thinking. Before I give in to an urge to eat unhealthy or a larger portion or at night, I take a moment to think it through. Is it worth it? Am I truly hungry? Will I still want that after I drink a cup of water and eat some carrots?

Story:
We purchase sugar-free fudgicles. Often one of these is my after dinner snack. They are low calorie. They take while to eat. They curb sweet and chocolate cravings. Anyhow, one night I had a meeting so I did not get this after dinner snack. I got home around 9PM and said to myself, "You didn't get your snack and even though I am past my eating time (7PM-3 hours before bedtime), I deserve my snack. I did not feel guilty. After all it was low calorie.

I pulled it out of the fridge and set it down at the computer. I grabbed a cup of water and returned to putz on the computer and enjoy my fudgicle. I took a sip of water and was going to open the fudgicle when I stopped to think about it. My first question to myself was "Did I really want to eat this late?" My answer was I want something sweet and chocolate. After all this was not Ben & Jerry's or a batch of cookies. Before I proceeded, I asked myself if I was hungry. I thought about it. I was not hungry. At that point I realized that I wanted to eat out of a sense of entitlement. That sounded like a stupid reason to eat especially for someone in my shape. I put that fudgicle back and was happy that I did not eat for such a dumb reason.