I aggree that if left to WILL-power that we will always fail. It's SKILL power that helps us get through these moments. Finding ways to avoid where the candy comes from or having something to fall back on such as dried fruit, fresh fruit, sugar free candies (these are rather good and low in calories) or even something sweet to drink that is low-calorie.

You can do it!!!! :yes: Just practice some skills.

Here's what helps me:

When I'm starting to reach towards the candy jar, I remind myself of how many calories are in the piece of candy I'm about to eat. That is often enough to put the brakes on.

If I eat it, I have to put it in my food journal. Again, knowing I have to add it into my calories for the day helps me put the brakes on.

As others have suggested, don't eat the first piece. Just put the whole candy jar off limits. I just went through this myself with chocolate covered espresso beans. My SO loves these and always has a container of them in the house. It is in a cupboard where we keep a lot of other food, so I have to reach past them at almost every meal and snack. For a while, I was allowing myself two per day and that was fine. But then two per day started turning into two more, which started turning into five, which turned into a handful...well, you get the idea--it's a slipperly slope. :o So two weeks ago I decided I needed to go cold turkey on the chocolate covered espresso beans. I can no longer have any. The first week was tough, but the second week was easier. Now I'm in to the third week and I barely notice them when I open the cupboard (turns out that doing something--or not doing something--for 21 days really does make it a habit). Go cold turkey on the candy jar and by the third week, I bet you won't be tempted anymore.

This even helps with other things. For example, I allow myself one potato chip per day. That's all I eat because I know if I start eating more, I'm gonna have to put the potato chips off limits, just like the chocolate covered espresso beans, and I don't want to give up my one potato chip. So today, when my SO held open the bag of potato chips and offered me one after I'd already had one (he didn't know I'd already had mine for the day), I just said "No thanks, I already ate one today."

It also helps to remind myself that I can always have some later if I want. I don't have to be thin; there's no law! I can quit my diet and eat the whole dang container of chocolate covered espresso anytime I want (and go out a buy another one and eat that one too!), just like you can go out and buy yourself a bag of candy anytime you want. So there's no need to eat an espresso bean now. I can always have one later if I'm having some sort of chocolate covered espresso bean emergency and I decide that the chocolate covered espresso beans are more important to me than being thin.