I kept it a secret for ages too. My family is in Australia and what they don't know won't hurt them. Or me. I blame my mother to some degree for my bad habits (not totally, but some). My husban's family are very restrained english and wouldn't dream of passing comment. Keeping it from friends was harder and hubby finally let out the secret. My friends are mostly as big as me or bigger and they think I'm mad. But appearances say it all! We're spending new year with them and that might be hard as we all stuff ourselves with rich food, usually. Husband's family at xmas was not bad beause the traditional english middle class diet is meat and veg, all I had to resist was the puddings and I managed to, to the extent that I lost a pound over xmas / boxing day (which is also my birthday. but they don't do cake, either.)