Why She Feels Fat by Johanna Marie McShane

Congrats to Courtney and Ann for good work on staying more yourselves! Nice job.

And Laura, you are right on. Things we want: open-mindedness; flexibility; acceptance and tolerance of a wide variety of opinions and beliefs and views, some of which we will agree with and others that we won't; and a variety of related things that I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Things we don't want: rigidity; fear of listening to others' views/opinion; close-mindedness; instant, random, and especially, dramatic, changes in our sense of self; and related things I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Now, how do we know if we're experiencing the Chameleon Phenomenon, or if we are being, say, open-minded?

Here's another image for you guys, or rather an occurrence that I bet will seem familiar to many of you: the Chameleon Phenomenon.

Loneliness is, indeed, a by-product of isolation. Loneliness should not be confused with being alone, however. It's very possible to be alone physically, and not feel either isolated or lonely. Just as it's possible to be surrounded by others and feel utterly isolated and lonely.

Our Bumper Sticker of The Week comes out of the issue we've been talking about this week: Isolation is a Killer. 

Yay Runforjoy! Nice job! As a cool addition, you managed to get a good conversation in with a friend about the topic as well. You rock.

I wanted to comment on something a few of you mentioned the other day, since it's important and occurs frequently.

It can be a real problem for people when they begin to look healthier. 

I know we just did a List of The Month, but what the heck, here's another one: 13 things to do when you're faced with dinner.

My heartfelt condolences, Bonnie, for your loss. And, truth is, we can't sit around and let these devastating disorders take away people's lives. 

Your comment spurred me to come up with a List of The Month: 3 things we can do to promote better awareness about eating disorders.

Oh, I forgot... Ann, recognizing something is, I think, more than half the battle. It's a complete success that you caught yourself using BUT. Your job now is to continue to look out for your use of BUT (and to be nice to yourself when you catch yourself at it- which you probably will again soon). Changing to AND will come- and likely faster than you think!

Runforjoy's comment is a perfect one with which we can practice "AND, not BUT."

This week's Bumper Sticker of The Week: "AND, not BUT"