Day 57---Head, shoulders, corns and bunions, corns and bunions!

I have already become hooked on barefoot walking. This is day 4, and I couldn't wait to get out the door this morning.

My husband had been trying to get me to read "Born to Run" for many months, since he knew I liked my Vibrams so very much. I finally started to read it, and it has coincided beautifully with my new-found hobby of awesomeness in barefoot walking/hiking.  Just last night, I settled in for my bedtime read and as I was reading about the benefits of letting your feet work naturally, my own tootsies were tingling with a new awareness and circulation. Walking barefoot is like a nice, long acupressure massage.

If you can wade through the book's writing--it's like an epic Men's Fitness article--it has some great pondering points. For barefoot running (or as I like to call it, "walking"). 


And against shoes. 




Blech, shoes! Boo, shoes!




I know that right now, my sweet husband is cringing, his face buried in his hands as he thinks, "Oh, please, no, please don't become the Crazy Barefoot Lady of Bainbridge". 


Well, I can't guarantee that I won't. People already gave me funny looks when I wore my monkey-toe shoes around town and at work. Now cars slow down when they drive by. I can't tell if it's my three odd-size pack of dogs or my bare feet. Maybe it's the fanny pack?




I'm not for running as a form of exercise, as you know. Remember, running is for avoiding being a tiger's meal and/or saving your babies from floating over the waterfall. There is no evidence that running as cardio extends your life any more than walking, but there is a hellatious amount of evidence that running busts up your human machine pretty good. HOWEVER, 


I am for minimalist footwear. 


My thought for several years has been:Why would you mess with a machine designed to work in your favor? 


Your feet were designed to hold you up, flatten when they need to cushion a load and pronate--yes, PRONATE--as part of the proper mechanics of walking. 


Pronate? That means your feet roll inward. Since I was a child, shoe salesmen were telling me "You pronate. We'll correct that with proper arch support in your shoes!" 

I know they meant well, but I read an interesting argument in the book that helped me convey why my feet are healthier and feel better now after ditching conventional shoes and those ridiculous orthodics. 

"Blueprint your feet, and you'll find a marvel that engineers have been trying to match for centuries. Your foot's centerpeice is the arch, the greatest weight-bearing design ever created. The beauty of any arch is that it gets stronger under stress; the harder you push down, the tighter the parts mesh. No stonemason worth his trowel would ever stick a support UNDER an arch; push up from underneath and you weaken the whole structure. Buttressing the foot's arch from all sides is a high-tensile web of twenty-six bones, thirty-three joints, twelve rubbery tendons and eighteen muscles, all stretching and flexing like an earthquake-resistant suspension bridge."

If your leg is in a plaster cast, 40-60% of the muscles atrophy within 6 weeks. So imagine what's happened to the muscles in your marvelous foot when you encase it in a shoe. For 40 years.

Muscles shrivel, tendons stiffen, and your foot can't do it's job. 
 
Did you know that in countries where most people go barefoot, fallen arches, corns, bunions, hammertoes and flat feet are nearly non-existent?

But, it's so pretty!!

Or, you could wear these. These are cool. 

 These are even more cool. Way cooler. For sure.

And people chuckle at ME!

Ha ha, 
Dani