Learning Curves : Living Your Life in Full and with Style

by WESTON, MICHELE J.

• ISBN13: 9780609605806
• ISBN10: 0609605801
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Crown Pub

Summary

Learning Curves is part of a new revolution taking place in this country, a revolution that's finally giving full-figured women a face and a voice. Author Michele Weston is the fashion and style director of Mode, the innovative fashion magazine targeted at the 62 percent of American women who wear a size 12 and above. Mode hit the newsstands in 1997 and quickly found an adoring readership for plus-size women craving fashion and beauty advice. Now, in Learning Curves, Weston presents a comprehensive practical and spiritual program that guides women to explore their inner beauty and outer style and covers all the bases, from dressing and dating to food and fitness. Weaving stories of successful full-figured women, including actor-writers Delta Burke and Camryn Manheim, with her own startling insights, Weston dispels age-old myths, exhorts women to throw off the shrouds of negative thinking, and gives them the confidence to be the sexy, strong, and proud role models they know they can be. The program is based on Weston's life experience -- fifteen years of being on a continuous learning curve -- during which she discovered her inner beauty, learned to feel comfortable with her body, and embraced success by rising to the top in the field of fashion, where being full-figured has always been considered a liability. Her advice is supplemented by the honest and compelling stories of real women who have taken that journey as well, and with step-by-step programs designed by Michele and experts in the fields of body image, health, and wellness. These are the women who have guided Michele on her journey to a truly fulfilling life. By sharing their victories, their moments of despair, and the lessons they've learned, Learning Curves inspires women of all sizes to start on the road toward living their lives in full and with style.

Author Biography

Michele Weston consults for websites including the stripe.com and mypotential.com. She was the consulting fashion & style director for Modestyle.com as well as having been the founding fashion & style director for Mode magazine. Michele brings her varied experience from the worlds of publishing, fashion and retail.

Table of Contents

Introduction Living Your Life in Full and with Style	2	(6)
Learning from Your Past	6	(28)
Your Inner Style	34	(28)
Living in Your Skin	62	(34)
Mind over Matter	96	(30)
Refining Your Style	126	(34)
Stretching Your Style	160	(28)
Dating with Style	188	(34)
Being a Role Model with Style	222	(16)
Additional Reading	238	(1)
Index	239

Excerpts

Living Your Life in Full and with Style

The lens through which I view my body and my life has changed forever. For the last fifteen years, I have been on a journey -- the journey to find happiness with and within my bigger body. I traveled far and wide without leaving New York City. The places I visited didn't require a passport or a suitcase full of clothes. All I had with me was a mirror, my memories, and a journal. They would unravel the secret that I had for so long wanted to reveal. The search was to find my beauty and my style. What I found in the process was all this and much more.

My discoveries have culminated in Learning Curves. This book documents each step I took in order to find fulfillment in the fuller figure I am now proud to own. Like most journeys, there were days of sunshine and days of rain. There were moments when I wanted to go back home, cut the journey short, and begin again at a later date. But I didn't. Because I knew that if I chose not to complete the journey, my life would continue to be marred with unhappiness and insecurity. Creating a life that would make me truly happy required letting go of the negative beliefs that had caused me pain. It was this desire that kept me searching.

I have met thousands of plus-size women in the last three years through working at Mode magazine. Whether I've been commentating fashion shows across the country or at the office finding clothes for the magazine to cover, all of them inspired me to continue my journey to feel beautiful inside and out. This book is a product of their encouragement, support, and love. The experience of writing Learning Curves now gives me the opportunity to inspire every full-figured woman to find her true style.

Twenty-two of the women whom I have encountered over the last ten years inspired and guided me in my journey to find self-love, self-style, and self-assurance. I know their stories will do the same for you. Some of these women are friends I have come to know well, and others are women I have met only briefly. But all have touched my life deeply.

Each of them took a different leg of the journey with me because each had a unique and profound experience of the particular subject at hand. Whether one woman was learning how the past was still creating her current reality or another had learned how to be comfortable with her body, each of them reveals how she found freedom and her own style from the lessons her experiences taught her. Their stories punctuate the eight steps of this book's learning curves. These women are all big, all beautiful; some are famous, some not; they cross the divisions of age, race, and occupation. But all are extraordinary in their capacity to celebrate who they are and embrace living fully and feeling beautiful in their bodies.

The eight steps that have enabled me to find my beauty and style encompass the learning curves that I invite you to take. I will be your guide, and will take you by the hand and show you every step of the way. As a big girl myself, I know what it's like to have the world slap you in the face because of your size. I have suffered the pain of being told that I couldn't fit in because of my weight and I have felt the frustration of believing that the only way I could be measured was by a number on the bathroom scale. I bought into that beauty myth. I have lived with the shadows of my own past, weighed myself morning and night, dieted and binged, been overlooked at dances, and have been ignored at times by a world that has seen beauty only on a very small scale. But not anymore. These eight steps have given me the power and the permission to feel beautiful. I wouldn't change myself for the world.

Here are the eight steps, included in which are twenty-nine learning curves. Each will bring you closer to feeling and looking beautiful.

Step 1 asks you to understand how your past has shaped how you see yourself today. You can only look forward to a life of feeling beautiful once you've looked back at where your fears have come from.

Step 2 invites you to create the life you've always dreamed about, free from the limitations that many full-figured women face. It shows you how to begin living your life through your own lens and guides you through the search to find your inner style.

Step 3 looks at your body. You will see that by learning to embrace the parts you love and accept the parts you don't, you will have taken an incredibly important step toward finding self-love. You will learn how to own your body on your terms.

These first three steps test your courage, self-worth, and capacity to feel beautiful. I assure you that the journey is well worth completing, because you will then begin to realize how to feel beautiful, how to make your life rich and fulfilling, and how to love your body.

Step 4 looks at your attitudes with regard to food, exercise, and the way your body vocabulary expresses how you feel about yourself. You will be shown how your feelings about each of these subjects hold the key to unlocking a life of health, enjoyment, and celebration free from guilt.

Steps 5 and 6 reveals your style through dress. You will take a tour of your wardrobe, uncover your personal taste, and I will show you how clothes can make you look and feel your most beautiful.

Step 7 looks at how you can date with style. By exploring the attitude of feeling desirable, the clothes you wear on a date and the date itself will show you how to radiate style and how to attract the attention of another.

Step 8 invites you to see yourself in relation to those around you. This final step asks you to view yourself as a role model. You will see the woman you are and appreciate that your beauty is seen not just by you but also by those who love you.

Having completed the learning curves journey, I have returned to a place where I can bask in the light of my own radiance. It is as brilliant as the dawn of the new millennium itself. I can tell you that I feel beautiful, powerful, purposeful, and original. I now am able to live my life out loud, in full, and with style. My hope is that you will feel the same way about yourself as I now feel about myself. If I can help one woman to feel her power and beauty and see herself in a new light, I will know that this book has made a difference and that my purpose in writing it has been achieved. I hope that woman is you. By reading this far, you have already started your journey. Learning your curves with me urges you to see life in a different light -- your light, your truth. This is your life. So live it in full and with style.

---

Excerpted from Learning Curves: Living Your Life in Full and with Style by Michele Weston
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.