Going bald was something I began contemplating as soon as I learned I had cancer. In anticipating the event, I assumed it would be traumatic. A woman losing her hair? It's such a part of who we are as women.

Even the term "bad hair day" is a commonly understood part of the vernacular of our culture. We all know what it means. It means that if you think your hair looks shitty, you're likely to feel shitty and unattractive the rest of the day.

But when it happened, the hair fallout, on Day 17 after my first chemo treatment ... it really wasn't that traumatic. I had known it was going to happen. My oncologist had told me that with the cocktail of chemo I was being given, there was no chance I wouldn't lose my hair. And my scalp had been sore and tender for a week, warning me via Morse code that the exodus was eminent.

The other day at in the women's locker room of the gym, two likely young 20-somethings were having a dramatic conversation in front of my locker, so I really had no choice but to overhear everything they were saying. One of them -- who, I must note is tiny all over but blessed in the bust -- was freaking out that she gained two pounds. Her friend was consoling her that sometimes that just happens, and "like, the other day she totally only ate salad and still gained weight!" Upon hearing this, I wanted ... to ... cry.

Really, ladies? This is what we spend our time, money, and mental anguish on. Going crazy over two pounds here, one pound there. Our breasts, our noses, our hair, our eyelashes! We fail to truly see what we look like. We often exert so much energy hating how we look. It's no surprise a new poll of 3,000 adult women by myspecialk.co.uk found women don't really feel confident about their bodies, inside and out, until they're 52 YEARS OLD!

I collect plastic surgery horror stories the way some people collect precious porcelain figurines. The latest? The saga of a botched butt boost involving an exotic dancer from Baltimore. The dancer, who has not been named in reports, was hospitalized for shortness of breath after undergoing a shady procedure in which silicone was injected into her buttocks: The implant affected her lungs and resulted in pneumonia. The shoddy buttocks enhancement, which was allegedly conducted in a local hotel room by another woman who has been arrested, is only the most recent a series of stories highlighting the dangers of a disturbing (and sometimes deadly!) trend.

Did you wake up feeling ancient and creaky this morning? Did you shuffle over to the sink to brush your teeth, glance in the mirror, and startle at the sight of those creepy signs of aging: the untamable gray hairs, the telltale lines and wrinkles?

Don't worry: It turns out you're probably way younger than you think you are! A new Census Bureau study has found that nearly three times as many Americans are living to the age of 90 and beyond as they did just three decades ago. And those numbers are expected to continue to rise dramatically: By the middle of this century, experts predict, the ranks of the oldest of the old will swell from 1.9 million to ... around 8.7 million. That's a lot of mega-oldsters!

We've seen drug addicts, teen moms, chronic hoarders, and a host of people with other serious issues sacrificed to the reality TV gods -- their deeply personal troubles and struggles paraded before us for our casual entertainment. Now, apparently, it's people with eating disorders' turn.

Yep, Lifetime TV has announced plans to premiere a new reality show following people with eating disorders, Starving Secrets, on December 2. The show's host, Tracey Gold, who as a teen starring on the sitcom Growing Pains went through her own struggle with anorexia nervosa, swears the show will be tasteful and not exploitative, but honestly, I have a hard time believing that will be the case.

From the first second I heard about the Reebok EasyTone sneakers "technology" -- I had an eensy inclination the shoes were bogus (read: I'm no fool). But as a woman, I can't help but be intrigued by anything that promises model-style stems. Alas, the FTC stuck it to the sportswear giant this week when they ordered Reebok to cough up $25 million to customers who bought the popular toning shoes. Epic. Fail.

While they're not saying the sneaks are a complete load of bull, they ARE saying the claims they make in those sexy commercials featuring the skinny mini with the killer gams are over-exaggerated, and there's no legit proof the product yields superb toning results. RATS. You mean a pair of sneakers can't make me look like Gisele? Goshdarnit.

Alas, there IS good news: There are a bajillion ways to tone up without Reebok's help. We've just got to get back to the basics with these 4 toning tricks:

Thinner women are happier in their relationships, according to research from the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. But it's not just "thin women" in general. It's relative. Meaning if a wife has a lower body mass index (BMI) than her husband, he's supposedly going to be more satisfied initially, and she's supposedly going to be "more satisfied" over time.

Ooookay. Well, given society's standards of beauty and gender roles, it makes sense that most guys want to be with a woman who is smaller than he is, especially before changes (pregnancies, menopause, etc.) that cause women to gain weight. But what about the idea that we're happier in the long-run if we're thinner than our guy? Could it be that if a woman weighs less and thus considers herself more attractive than her man -- the person she's closest to and likely spends the most time with -- she feels better about herself in general?

This can easily become of the most dreaded times of the year for many of us, if only because it's bathing suit season. Media and advertising have us believing we're practically supposed to sweat bullets over what styles look best on our body types, what cover-ups look the most chic and least muu-muu-ish, what kinds of cellulite cream will do nothing for "reduce the appearance of" our various lumps and bumps. That's just what we do every summer, right?

But according to a new survey of about 1,000 women 18 years old and up, conducted for ShopSmart (which is from the publisher of Consumer Reports), we're not falling into that trap of self-hatred so easily anymore!

Only about 18 percent of respondents didn't like how they look in a bathing suit, while 40 percent are impartial, and 36 percent are "OK with it." Apparently, this is good, exciting, happy news, because so few women reported being unhappy with how they look.