I know first hand how hard it is to stick to a diet, to exercise regularly, to find the motivation to keep going even when you don’t want to. But what happens when you throw a house guest into the mix?

This past weekend was certainly a test. An old friend of mine stayed overnight Saturday and we had a traditional girl’s night. Before I started training for the marathon relay, I would have thrown all discipline out the window and had a weekend of fattening foods and sitting around. The race is a week away and there was no way I was going to do that. Or was I?

I only threw half my discipline out the window. Whoops.

Saturday night we went to an authentic Mexican restaurant and I had a Corona & lime with my meal, which, by all accounts was fairly healthy save for sour cream. Lots of beans, fresh salsa and freshly made corn tortillas with chicken were on my plate. I enjoyed every bite without guilt.

On our way home we bought a blueberry cheesecake to the tune of 300 calories per serving. Ouch.

I savoured my one serving slowly while my friend ate half the cheesecake (the equivalent of 3 servings). Now, I’m not used to eating this way anymore, so that cheesecake soon became a food baby in my gut. It sat there throughout the whole movie we were watching and kicked, gurgled and made me cramp and moan. I just wanted to give birth to it so I could end this agony.

I looked down at my belly and silently promised to get back on the wagon the next day. Sorry belly.

Sunday morning, my husband made me a veggie omelet and my friend finished off the cheesecake instead of having eggs with us. I wanted to get a run in, but my friend, in from a small town, wanted to hit all the stores she had been missing. So we did. I insisted we park as far away from each store as possible so we could at least walk a lot, so we did that. We shopped for hours and went home to make dinner: bbq’d steak, bbq’d roasted potatoes and salad. I ate well, as did she, but I still wanted to run. Unfortunately I was entertaining her until 8 p.m. and my husband had to leave for hockey then so I never did run yesterday. I was disappointed in myself for not just doing it.

Oh the guilt. My body is craving movement in a big way this morning. I have weight training tonight but I’ve gotta move this morning or I’m going to go stir-crazy.

Yes, I could have said I would be back in an hour and just gone for that run, but I felt like I was being rude. I offered to ride bikes with my friend, to walk, to take her to my gym, but she didn’t want to do any of that. Still, I have to forgive myself for the weekend. There’s no sense dwelling on something I cannot go back in time and change. It’s not her fault either - I had every opportunity to go and run, she even insisted she would read her book, but I said no. I made that choice.

At least she ate all the cheesecake in the freezer so it’s not there to tempt me into having another food baby. Now that’s what friends are for!