I also told people, not just family but also at work, it helped me to cope with the diagnosis, gave me an incentive to do something about my diet and exercise but more importantly to keep with it. It also helped to explain why I was a little more serious than usual. Now, when I am tempted not to go for a walk someone will comment that I am the 'walker in the team' so I feel I have to go even for a short time, someone who has not seen me for a few weeks comments how elegant I look and I grow a couple of inches inside. In life it is not the repeated falling that counts but the repeated getting up and giving it another go. The only time you 'fail' is the day that you don't get up and try again. If necessary painting on a smile, (women have an advantage there with putting on some lippy it helps to smile!) and you will soon find that the smile becomes genuine. Small steps and being patient with yourself help, no-one said that perfection was achieved overnight or even first time. When someone has been an 'overnight success' a little look at their background shows that there is years of hard work behind them. You are doing just fine, doing the best you can at the moment. Everyday is another clean sheet and has its own successes, focus on what goes right.
