Happy Feet

When I was 14 I wanted to be a podiatrist when I grew up. Weird, but for those of you that know me, not that weird. After meeting Brandee, I went with her to the podiatrist to figure out what to do about her flat feet and foot pain. His recommendation, $300 orthotics. Several years later we went to another podiatrist and he said that her orthotics were junk and she needed his $400 orthotics. I'm skeptical about most everything so naturally I have a hard time believing that she needed what he was selling, but we got them.

Fast forward several years. Brandee's feet were still flat and she was still having foot, knee and back pain (thanks orthotics). The barefoot movement is now in full swing and there is a raging debate between barefooters and podiatrists. Podiatrists naturally say everyone needs orthotics, but barefooters say that you can fix your feet by getting rid of shoes.

I naturally turned to researching the topic to death and found several facts amongst the ranting barefooters.

Fact #1 Bunions are caused by narrow shoes and most all shoes are too narrow.
Fact#2 Adding a heel to shoes only causes problems. Extra cushioning just makes you walk and run wrong and adds stress to your legs, knees and back. Your foot needs less support not more. Arch supports and motion control only weaken your feet.
Fact #3 Not wearing shoes makes your feet stronger and wearing shoes makes them weaker

Look at the difference between the person who has never worn shoes


and someone who has worn shoes their whole life. We were able to test this out when Alia started walking. Her foot resembled the top pictures because she hadn't really worn shoes yet.


The last straw was when Alia's feet became so smashed by her shoes that her first and third toe started to touch. Her Dr. told us that she needs wide flexible shoes and her feet will be fine. This was a pivotal moment. If she needed this what about the rest of us? I decided to conduct a little experiment. Try this at home: trace your foot on a piece of paper while standing. Cut out the outline and then pull out your insole from your shoes and compare their size.


Here is one of mine with about 1" that has to smash into my dress shoe

All of this left us in search of a shoe that was wide enough to not smash our feet and not contain a thick heel. This is much more difficult than I would have thought. Fashion does not agree with what our feet need. We finally found a great company called Soft Star Shoes which makes wide, flexible leather shoes. I bought Alia and I a pair. Brandee however, tried the Vibram five fingers and liked that it gave her toes room to spread and held her crooked toe straight. The bad part about these new shoes is that you realize how confining all of the rest of your shoes are. For now we are happy to watch our feet get stronger and be comfy doing it. Brandee has noticed the biggest difference. Her standing and running posture has changed dramatically and her foot pain has lessened.



For runners we found this video very simple and helpful. A very simple change can make running go from work to fun and easy.