Have you seen the 100-calorie snack packs at the grocery store? It seems like they have them for everything now -- cookies, crackers, even dog treats. I've never been a fan of them myself because A) it's amazing how they can make a chocolate chip cookie taste like cardboard and B) I'd rather just eat a REAL chocolate chip cookie.

Revolution Health has some great tips for handling the munchies healthfully. Snacking isn't a bad thing. Healthy snacks help you maintain your energy and stabilizes your blood sugar. Here are 11 healthy, convenient alternatives -- and they're all under 200 calories!

• 2 cups fat-free popcorn
• Single-serve instant oatmeal (opt for the reduced sugar variety)
• Whole-wheat crackers
• Whole-grain cereal
• Sliced apple or celery sticks with 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 4-6 ounces of light yogurt or fat-free pudding
• Snack-size low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts)
• Any whole fruit
• Serving of soy chips
• Dried fruit and nut mix

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You eat healthy, you go to the gym regularly, you watch your portions, and yet you're still gaining weight slowly. What's the deal? If you're scratching your head and asking these questions, start to pay attention to every little think you put in your mouth. Why? Because according to this article, forgotten calories can lead you to gain up to 20 pounds a year. Yikes!

By forgotten calories, we're talking about the couple of chocolates you ate here, the handful of chips to ate there, the spoonful of ice cream you smuggled out of the ice cream container last night. You probably didn't add these to your calorie count because you figured it wasn't enough to matter, but guess what -- it was.

What to do? Keep an eating journal and take it with you everywhere. And whenever something passes your lips, write down right away. Then keep subtotaling your calories throughout the day so you know how much you've really eaten that day. Sound too complicated? Then go cold turkey on the snacks.

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Part of why the weight loss industry is so huge is that there isn't just one solution that can be made to work for everybody -- we're all dealing with different issues, genetics, lifestyles, etc., so it ends up getting really complicated. But one thing that may help you find success is figuring out what kind of an "eater" you are. Do you snack in the evenings? Graze all day? Binge big at mealtimes? Knowing your weaknesses can help you devise better coping mechanisms and therefore better weight management. So what kind of eater are you? I think I'm mostly a "Nighttime Nibbler" myself.

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The late-night munchies are common knowledge to many of us. We can't sleep for some reason and we get up and start noshing n all kinds of food in the wee hours of the morning.

Now, small snacks like this are great during the day. The energy boost and small portions are great throughout periods of the day, and help you to not overeat at those main meals of the day. But hey, during the day, you're moving all around and your metabolism is in gear.

At night, this is not the case, and it makes late-night munching one of the worst things you can do for your waistline. Can't sleep? Get on the PC and read some blog entries -- just don't eat anything.

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Do you have those cravings for things when you just are not that hungry? We all have had that feeling before. Call it a "craving" or whatever you'd like.

Is it healthy for the waistline? Not likely, as cravings generally aren't for healthy foods. Cravings I still have to this day include ice cream. Mentally beating that back is a challenge in and of itself. What can we do to fight the cravings...for everything? Ediets has a nine-step list that may be able to help:

1. Exercise.
2. Get a massage.
3. Read biographies of people who inspire you.
4. Use guided imagery.
5. Listen to relaxing music.
6. Take a bath with aromatherapy.
7. Laugh.
8. Get a pet and love it.
9. Find a passion.

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Sometimes it will strike me without warning: incredible hunger that makes it impossible to concentrate until I get something, anything, in my stomach. This is usually when I fall off my healthy wagon and raid the nearest convenience store of it's potatoe chip supply. I figure that if I can control these sudden bouts of hunger, I can ward off unhealthy eating all together, so now I carry around a piece of fruit with me everywhere. People laugh when an apple rolls out of my handbag as I'm looking for my wallet, but I'm the one laughing when the munchies attack them -- or offering them a piece of fruit.

What are your tips for controlling hunger? In addition to carrying fruit around with me, I try to have a healthy snack every few hours or so, and I try to get fiber a protein throughout the day to ward off hunger. AOL also has these great tips for controlling hunger -- you should check them out!

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