DEAR ABBY: I am a plus-sized woman. I am loud and boisterous, and I like to surround myself with similar women. However, there is a problem I am now facing.
Many of my friends have made amazing transformations and gotten fit. I am fully supportive and impressed, but I see the price they are paying. They are no longer confident and vivacious. They have become timid, approval-seeking shells of their previous selves.
Why do newly thin women forget how awesome their personalities used to be? -- BIG BEAUTY IN ILLINOIS
DEAR BIG BEAUTY: Not knowing your friends, I can't answer for them. But it is possible that having become "transformed and fit," they no longer feel they need their loud and boisterous personas to compete for attention.