Taking Care of Everything

I used to be like the average female. Wore high heels on the regular, the cutest flat sandals from Aldo every season, and flip-flops when I was running around doing errands.

My whole life I never thought about foot care. Ever. I sprained/broke my ankle many times in my dancing years, twice needing crutches. I always just iced it, stretched it and a week later it would be back to normal. I never thought much more of it.

I started working at Canadian Footwear a couple of months ago, and I will never forget on my very first day one of the staff said 'wow you pronate like crazy'. I had no clue what this meant, and no clue that I was having trouble with my feet because of this.

I've learned quite a bit about foot care since starting here, a lot of it I have been able to apply to my own feet. I pronate a lot which means my feet roll inwards when I walk. My arches have collapsed and I have very flat feet. This isn't the end of the world, but it has certainly been causing a lot of problems and pain for me.

I joined a running club a few weeks ago, which if you've read my blog you'll know it's been going fairly well, up until about a week ago. I have also been walking 5 km after work to get back to my car parked near Polo Park (saves money and I get exercise). I started experiencing a lot of pain in my feet. And I'm not talking about wow I haven't worked out in a while kind of pain, I mean wow I can hardly walk because my feet and calves are burning kind of pain. I slowed down a bit and took a break from running.

I've taken the advice of some of the pedorthists and staff around here, and bought myself a pair of stability runners. These are runners that help with pronation because they push the inside of your foot up so that your arch is pushed up a bit. I've only been wearing them for a couple of days, and honestly the difference I feel is amazing. The first day they felt weird. It was like a whole new kind of walking. Now, my feet aren't sore at the end of the day and that feels great.

I also bought a pair of Power Step insoles for my regular runners, and even in that I've noticed a difference. I still wear my regular runners for work and for walking, just because it's not good to wear the same shoes every day so I do have to rotate them. In fact, when I took my insoles out of my regular runners and saw that they looked like this

I was beyond shocked that I haven't bought these insoles sooner. It's no wonder my feet have been hurting so bad, because I've basically been walking with a piece of paper between my feet and the ground. When you buy a neutral runner, the insole isn't very thick because neutral runners are for people who generally don't experience any problems with their feet while running. This also gives people the option to put their own insoles in for more support and stability.

I'm no longer the fancy heels kind of girl. Sure, I have one or two pairs for fancy occasions but to be honest, you'll probably see me in running shoes or wedges most of the time. I'm definitely not trying to project this athletic image (because I even wear New Balance lifestyle shoes with dresses now) but I'm finally understanding how important foot care is. It's kind of like your overall health, in that if you start taking control of it when you're younger, you're less likely to face problems later on in life.