I stopped using my upstairs office over the holidays, in part because it was needed as a spare room when we had house guests. While they were in town I kept my laptop on the kitchen table, the place where I most often worked for the past four years until getting my own home office last fall.

Once our house guests left, well, it just seemed convenient to keep my laptop in the kitchen while my husband and son were both home all day over the winter break. I also gained 6 pounds over the holidays, and I am absolutely convinced these two things are related.

Now, to be honest, I’d managed to unexpectedly drop 7 pounds in mid-December in part because I was unbelievably sick. So gaining back 6 of those pounds while disappointing, still means that I ended last month with a net weight loss. For that I have to once again give the credit to Sensa, which is by far the easiest diet I’ve been on.

But a lot of the reason for the gain is obvious: stationed in the kitchen, snacking was all too easy and the fridge was all too close. When I’m in my office on the top floor of the house, it’s just the opposite.

Having to walk up and downstairs from my office to the kitchen definitely reduces the number of snacks I eat throughout the day, as I find myself weighing goodies with the time and effort it takes to get them. Even when I’m not raiding the fridge, I still have to run up- and downstairs to do laundry or answer the phone, even to go outside to the deck for a cigarette.

So as of today I’m back to working at the desk in my office. I’ve managed to do four loads of laundry. I’ve gone downstairs twice to eat meals: sliced fruit and scrambled egg whites for breakfast; a tossed green salad with fat-free dressing for lunch. Oh, and I’ve run down two other times for cigarettes. That makes for 8 round trips with a total of 8 trips with 13 steps each way, or 208 stairs altogether. No, that doesn’t sound like a lot but I guarantee you that my thighs feel the burn. Something else I guarantee: I ain’t leaving my desk until it’s time to go get my son from school!