Figuring out this food balancing act

You would think at being almost 42 years old and really understanding the whole what goes in should go out principle that it wouldn't take me so long to get it, but I finally get it. Or, I should be honest, I finally care enough to do something about it. What am I talking about? Well, yesterday I was hungry in the early afternoon. I grabbed a quarter cup of trail mix (half nuts, half dried fruits). Well, I wanted more. So, I had to make a choice. I could have more of those, but that meant giving something else in the day. In the end I ate 3/4s of a cup of that plus a nutrition bar and called that my early dinner. It wasn't a terrible choice nutritionally and I didn't go over my calories for the day this way. For dinner I just ate a garden salad. Today I was craving potato chips. I haven't had potato chips in a year. But I really wanted them, so instead of breakfast of apple with peanut butter, I had some potato chips. An odd breakfast, but now I have satisfied that salt craving and I can move on and not think about it. In the past, I would have eaten the apple with peanut butter and the chips. But I need to make a choice and hopefully most of the time, I will make the better nutritional choice. It's what I've been doing with special occasions too. I enjoy the special meals, I just cut back the rest of the day. So far that has worked as I get really full and don't even want to eat more later and sometimes I'm not even that hungry the next day. That is something that has changed for sure. I used to be just as ravenous later or the next day. Stats for 12/8/11: Beginning weight: 255.6. Now: 173.0