Everyone told me weight would just magically fall off as I got closer to my wedding day, because when you're stressed, "that's just what happens." Um, not so much. It's more like the reverse for me, thanks to hormones, so I've just been hoping my hard workouts provide stress relief (sounds pretty counterintuitive, huh?). But for many women, stress and difficult emotions often lead to involuntary weight loss. Even if they're going through the roughest times of their lives, they might look thinner than ever, and then we commend them. Ridic!

Eva Longoria spoke with Dr. Oz about the months following her divorce from Tony Parker, and she said it was "the time I got the most compliments, because I was so skinny. I was not eating. I was depressed. I was sad. My diet was coffee." Grrrreat.

My whole life I've been convinced the most stressful place to live is the city I'm living in. The 'burbs where I grew up were too cold too many months out of the year, Boston's public transportation is frustratingly slow, LA's traffic was a beast, and NYC is just OMG overwhelmingly crowded and dirty and rude. As it turns out, only one of the states I called home for a time made the current Gallup poll of five most stressful places to live in the U.S. 

The results were determined by asking over 350K people one simple question: “Did you feel stressed during a lot of the day yesterday?” Yup, that's it! And based on their responses, here's what Gallup came up with as the five most hair-pulling, teeth-clenchingly stressful states ...

A week and a half after the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, at least 48 people are still hospitalized, according to figures from six Boston-area hospitals that dealt with most of the seriously injured. And at least 13 of those people lost a limb, including some who had multiple amputations and are now preparing for temporary prostheses, which can be fitted about two to three months after the injury, followed by permanent ones a year later.

While these victims are clearly facing one of the darkest challenges of their lives, they did get a dose of inspiration when they met with amputee soldiers from Semper Fi Fund, a veterans' group for injured military personnel. In addition to setting up a Boston Marathon fund for those hurt in the blast, the vets met with about a dozen patients and their families at four different hospitals to show their support and offer some words of wisdom ...

People cope with stress all sorts of different ways. My issue? Lately, I feel like I'm coping with it all the time. Instead of focusing on my issues (hello, sleeping problem), I've been running from them ... literally. Three, four, five miles -- sometimes twice a day. I know I know, but isn't that what they say? That working out helps you release stress?

I know, I'm that woman who is bitching about running too much. You're probably rolling your eyes at me. But we need to look at the bigger issue: I can't just run away every time I have a problem. My legs won't last that long. Soon I'll get knee problems. And god, it gets to be really really tiring.

It's hard, though. Here's why:

In addition to marriage counseling, I've started getting therapy for myself too. I've been in and out over the years, mostly when I've needed the extra support to deal with difficult family issues.

But every time I go back, I wonder why I ever stopped because I find the sounding board and guidance of a neutral party to be so helpful in every aspect of my life, whether it's parenting, my relationship, or my own personal goals and needs.

If you're wondering why you might need to go to individual therapy to help your marriage, here's why I decided to take the plunge alone.

My new book, Motherhood Comes Naturally (And Other Vicious Lies), comes out tomorrow. Eeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk!! (Sorry for that. I'm freaking out a bit.)

Anyway, the book is all about dispelling the myths and lies surrounding motherhood that we've all either been told or continue to perpetrate ourselves. Does motherhood really get easier than those early newborn days? NO! Does parenting really strengthen a marriage? Hardly. Will you bounce back to your old self? Never!

Yet we hear these things so often that we don't question whether or not they're actually true. And I get it: The lies are a lot more pleasant and hopeful than the dirty truth. But I am hardly perfect, and despite striving for the truth, I've told a number of lies lately myself. Lies like these ...

I confess: I have a bit of a reputation ... for being a crybaby. Not in the bratty, temper tantrum, hissyfit way. But in the absolutely no trouble falling into a full-on stressed, upset, sentimental, or even happy tearfest way. All manner of things can set me on a waterworks streak -- from an overloaded schedule to noticing a cute toddler playing with her mommy. Yup, I'm that "overemotional" woman all the misogynistic greeting cards make fun of. My fiance's euphemism for it is "sensitive," which I take more kindly to but still find a bit of a jab sometimes.

Maybe I'm just more in touch with my emotions and realize it's perfectly okay and actually therapeutic (cleansing!) to cry it out. Many times! Not just at "prescribed" crying times like weddings, funerals, during Sarah McLachlan save the puppies commercials ... Here, 18 less obvious reasons you should feel free to cry, because you'll be all the much better for it ...

Like the majority of women in America, my weight has fluctuated since I was in high school. Since I’ve given birth twice in that time, it’s fluctuated wildly. Growing a human is hard work, man! In my case, it required bean and cheese burritos and fries. Hmmm … I don’t really wonder why I gained such a huge amount when pregnant with my eldest daughter.

My weight over the last decade and a half has ranged from 115 pounds as a vegetarian 16-year-old swimmer to number that started with two the day I gave birth to my first daughter, and everything in between. I’ve dealt with the stigma of being heavy and the contempt of others when I was thin and fit. It seems like you just can’t win as a woman sometimes.