My vote also goes to counting fingers and breathing with your nose closed.

Awareness is the key.
I mentioned this a few times in some topics, but don't do your RCs automatically.
2 nights ago I had a dream where I looked my hand everything seemed normal, but when I actually concentrated on counting fingers one by one I realized that there were 6 of them.
Before that I was using RC where I would try to change the color of something, but that failed like 50% of times in my dreams because I was not aware in my waking life.

Don't stress about it. Doing reality checks in your dreams even if they fail is a step forward.
Work on your awareness in everyday life, and on 'living in the moment' - this is of big importance to me.
And remember that lucidy is not only none existent or fully. Its a scale 0-100. So you were lucid to some level in this dream, even thou you didn't take control over it.