Barefoot

[Sucumbio]

Link to original post: [drupal=2842]Barefoot[/drupal]



... and pregnant?

Not so much. -_-;

Twice in as many years my back's gone way out of alignment, lower lumbar to be precise, and caused me severe pain and misery. The Cause? According to my last Dr.'s visit... my shoes, or more accurately, my lack of wearing shoes.

Basically I never wear shoes. If I HAVE to wear something on my feet, I'll wear sandals, which are flat, normally (I have a pair of Nike sandals which do have some support arch). VERY rarely I'll find it necessary to wear shoes, or in my case, I wear a pair of boots. This is for things like, going to a job interview, super cold weather (it's gotta be in the 30's or less), umm... serious physical work involving heavy machinery or a dangerous work area, these types of things.

Anyway last time I went for 4+ months going barefoot/sandals then wearing my boots, my back gave out almost immediately, like literally 10 minutes or so into wearing them before I collapsed. Ended up in the ER to get a pain shot.

This time it took more like a day or so, I was in them for a day, the next morning, I could barely walk. I didn't do the ER cause it wasn't as bad, instead I went to the Dr's (my wife had an appointment anyway so I told him while I was there). His best advice is to start wearing "good tennis shoes" or athletic sneakers basically, and walk in them lots, and to stop going barefoot all the time.

*cries*

I HATE SHOES! If I had my way I'd be barefoot for the rest of my life. Gah. So of course I haven't bought them yet, waiting for this weekend to arrive and we'll pick some up at the BX (base exchange)... so this week marks the last week my feet will have the freedom to be ... well free. sigh.

 

[altairian]

Do you not have a job? I'm not judging you, but it just seems pretty hard to go that long without ever putting on a pair of shoes.

Don't think of it as losing the ability to be barefoot all the time, think of it as gaining the ability to have that great feeling of coming home after a long day and taking your shoes off XD

 

[ook]

That sucks.
I love going barefoot too, pretty much exactly how you described in your post. I don't even know if my old "real" shoes still fit or not... it's been a while. It's always barefoot, or sandals if absolutely neccessary.



it feels so good to walk barefoot... even in the snow.
feeling all the different textures of the ground...
****in hate shoes, they're dirty, they smell, and they make your feet smell.

 

[GunmasterLombardi]

Reminds me of a neighbor up the street. She wears flippy floppies in the rain and less than 20 degress F. O.o

 

[jivegamer]

If I find a comfortable pair of shoes, I have trouble taking them off! I know I've heard that sandals can negligibly affect your back, but I didn't know about going barefoot. I know it sucks to change, but if the doctor suggests it, I would recommend doing what he says. Either that, or find more supportive sandals.

 

[Sucumbio]

Do you not have a job? I'm not judging you, but it just seems pretty hard to go that long without ever putting on a pair of shoes.

Don't think of it as losing the ability to be barefoot all the time, think of it as gaining the ability to have that great feeling of coming home after a long day and taking your shoes off XD

Well I did have a job until I quit about 2 months ago. The job itself was indoors and "casual" dress, so I'd wear my sandals to get to work (illegal to drive barefoot) and to walk around the building (against company policy to be barefoot outside your cubicle) but once I was at my desk, off they came.

Yeah, that's definitely gonna be my new outlook, I'll just be that much happier to get OUT of them at night when I've come home from work. Course I still gotta get a job ... heh.

That sucks.
I love going barefoot too, pretty much exactly how you described in your post. I don't even know if my old "real" shoes still fit or not... it's been a while. It's always barefoot, or sandals if absolutely neccessary.

it feels so good to walk barefoot... even in the snow.
feeling all the different textures of the ground...
****in hate shoes, they're dirty, they smell, and they make your feet smell.

Nice, I don't go quite that far, if it's below 40 degrees I'm usually wearing socks/boots, but I try to keep my time outside limited. Haha I just raked up the yard while barefoot, it was awesome, I could feel all the different imperfections in the ground.

Reminds me of a neighbor up the street. She wears flippy floppies in the rain and less than 20 degress F. O.o

Dang, well that's TOO cold, lol too long in that and she'll get frostbite :O

Either that, or find more supportive sandals.

Now THIS I would do, except the whole shoes wearing thing is technically a 2-fold purpose, 1 to get my back properly aligned for wearing them, and 2 because theoretically my job will require them (you don't often get a job that is ok w/their male employees wearing sandals at the least, taking them off much less so). But I would totally love to get into shoe design, whereby I take an athletic shoe, and carve away the excess, making sandals out of them, then using that as the template to make a proper sandal. Prolly don't work that way, but eh. lol

 

[CRASHiC]

Amazing. doing some natural is bad for your health. that's a new one. (I'm being serious and not making fun of your doctor by any means).

 

[Sucumbio]

No, you're right it's insane to me too. He believes it's because of my abnormally low arches, when I put on the shoes after really long periods of not wearing them, my back basically says F you lol. I might try those gel inserts... yeah that's right, imma be gellin' like a felon. lol but yeah, maybe that'll do my back better, people swear it makes ALL the difference, I'm willing to give it a try.

 

[john!]

The minute I saw "barefoot" I thought "ook". Sure enough...

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

It sounds like the problem isn't walking around barefoot but rather not having the "muscle memory", as it were, to properly use shoes.

I would be skeptical that wearing shoes more often will resolve your issues because of the bizarre nature of your problem. Many people are barefoot for extended periods of time and then don't have issues with shoe use so there's obviously some issue with your feet/back. I'd just be really careful with shoes, and something like gel inserts that will let you walk more like when you're barefoot while wearing shoes might be a good idea.

 

[Sucumbio]

i tend to agree, the inserts will be a good choice. I have, I dunno, bad posture anyway, but I do have a ... forget the word, congenital? something. anyway there's this "C" shaped bone in the arch of the foot, and mine were underdeveloped, either due to premature birth, or an inherited condition, or god know's what. when I tried out for track it didn't take long for this issue to manifest itself w/2 broken feet. first the right, then left when I stubbornly was hoping around instead of using crutches. it sucks not being able to use your feet, lol. but yeah, they're like "well we can put steel pins in if you -really- want to run track, play sports) my mom's like... no that's ok. still might have been a good idea in the long run, but hindsight is 20/20. but yeah, gellin' like magellan and get a good pair of athletic shoes, and need to walk more, i tend to sit on my *** a lot lol need to get in shape, and work some of this extra weight off especially in the waist.