A little plug for practicing good posture….

Weight is related to height, or at least our sense of it. French women learn to hold their chins high and have a good posture (just pretend you have a rope or wire attached to the center of your head, pulling you up). For some reasons, only girls get the tiens-toi droite (stand up straight) reminder as we grow up. I recall one at the lycée who stood so erect we asked her what she had been doing. At home her mother would hold a ruler across her shoulders to force her to memorize the right posture. When I was growing up we learned to practice posture in ballet class. None of us became ballerinas, but the few classes did help. And our gym teacher always advised that as we French were a smallish race, cheating to look quelques centimètres plus grandes was no crime. So when I catch myself slouching while sitting in front of the computer or walking on the street, I think about the gym teacher and correct my posture instantly. And I do feel taller.