Scared and in need of some advice

Dear Mrs. G,

I just happened on your website today and I thought I would take advantage of your advice. I am a 50 year old woman and today I was just diagnosed with diabetes. When the doctor told me, I wasn't exactly surprised, as I have not felt well for a while and had put diabetes on my list of possibilities that I needed to be checked for. I am overweight and I know that I need to diet and I have abused my body for a very long time with eating fatty foods and sweets as much and when I pleased. Now I am suffering the consequences.
I just don't know if I can diet one more time, but I do want to live. I know what I should do, but I am so tired and feel so lousy, that I just can't exercise. I don't know if I can figure out this counting carbs, the food pyramid and taking insulin and it just blows my mind about the changes I am suppose to make in my eating habits. What is your advice for me?

Signed,
Newly Diagnosed

Dear Newly Diagnosed,
You said you feel "lousy", and you're too tired to exercise. Well I have to tell you one thing, no one likes to feel lousy and no one really likes to exercise, because it requires effort. It seems that the things that are best for us aren't exactly the things we would really like to do but, when we do them, we get feeling better.
Attitude is everything especially in dealing with illness. There are those who like to wallow in their own grief and wo is me attitude, and there are those who take the optimistic approach and deal with what they have to do to help themselves and do it with a smile. I hope that if I ever have to deal with something like what you are dealing with, I would choose the optimistic approach. I would hope that you too could find reasons why you need to start to look with optimism about dealing with your illness. Here are some pretty compelling reasons why....
1. Do you have family to live for and a desire to be around a whole lot longer.
2. Diabetes can be a slow disease and not a very pleasant one to live with, if you don't' take care of yourself. You can feel much, much worse if you don't take care of yourself.
3. You have allot of living left to do, and by eating right, and losing weight, you can increase your lifespan.
4. Do you have a great vocation and want to succeed until you have to retire?
5. You really do need to lose weight and this is a great and compelling reason to do it once and for all.
6. Are you a Grandma? If so, being apart of your grandchildrens lives is such a blessing. You need to be able to feel well so that you can get to know and enjoy your grandchildren.
7. Your life has been on an over eating out of control roller coaster for so many years, it is really time that you took control of your entire life!
8. There are those who look to you as an example and love you. Show them that you can conquer your fears, and doubts, and be happy and enjoy life, even with illness.

I bet you can come up with your own list to add to this one. I think you can do it and I believe that once you get your insulin levels and blood pressure taken care of, and under control, and lose some weight, you will feel so much better and continue to progress because you are happier and feel better.

Good luck and be sure to check back in with me when you have run your first marathon or at least walk your first mile.

Sincerely, Mrs. G.