here are what my feet looked like a month ago:
YUCK. not cool at all. soft and mushy and weak. i loved going barefoot before, but i usually stuck to being barefoot in the house and in the yard/neighborhood. i especially liked walking on moss and grass. my first time barefooting in the city i was in so much pain! i got blisters and they lasted for a couple weeks. but after the blisters went away the skin beneath them was even harder than the top skin was, so it was totally worth it.
ever since may 14th ive been barefoot! my birthday was may 13th, so i can later tell people that ive been barefoot since i turned 19!
about two weeks into my barefoot life my feet started looking like this:
you can see where i got blisters the two weeks before. the white area on my heel was a gigantic blister...not from walking barefoot on the ground...but from continually stepping on the back of my jeans! i also got a blister on my right foot near the ball of my foot, and into between my toes. that one hurt the most, but my soles are so tough there now!
my soles are black in this because of the continuous non-wearing of shoes and from walking in the subway in NYC. the places that look pink on the ball of my foot are from walking on concrete so much.
here are what my feet have finally become after being barefoot for a whole month:
this is my feet "clean". here you can actually see how rough they've gotten in the past month. my soles are shiny because i walked in the rain for hours on concrete in nyc with some friends. its the same general concept of leather...so basically my feet are getting tough as leather! i have stepped on glass several times and i can just stop and pull it out of my sole without it bleeding or anything. also, ive stepped on sharp rocks and instead of it cutting my foot, it only leaves a dent in my sole. you can see how my feet are getting calloused and thicker, especially on my heels and the balls of my feet. my toes are just not starting to get calloused.
just a side note: will found out that old navy lists shoes as accessories....and thats exactly where they should be! because you dont need shoes just like you dont need to wear gloves and mittens or hats!
I so hope you don't ever step on a needle.
ReplyDeleteFun! I didn't know going barefoot was some sort of organized group thing. My friends and I go barefoot all the time. Even when it snows (although it's not very fun then). My callouses are wicked awesome. It's so nice to be connected to the ground, watching it's contours and textures, and choosing where and how to step.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much only wear Chacos (sandals) when I'm hiking or doing field work and moccasins when I'm riding my bike (even my callouses can't make those pedals not hurt). You should look at Five Finger shoes for when you do need shoes. They're cool! And they'll protect your feet if you're doing non-walking activities.
You're pretty brave to be barefooting in NYC though. There is much more grass and less grime in Oklahoma.
and lol to the above comment. That is what my mom always says. I've never seen a needle lying on the ground and if I did, I wouldn't put my foot on it, haha!
Good luck!
Alesia-
ReplyDeleteThat's so awesome that you love going barefoot too! I'm originally from the south and it's far easier going barefoot there than NYC; like you said about Oklahoma, more grass :) I've heard of the vibram five fingers before, I'm not sure they're really for me! Will, my co-blogger, is an avid bike rider and he does it barefoot always. Maybe if you started doing it without your moccasins your feet would get used to it...then you'd never need shoes! Thanks for reading! We'll be updating regularly :)
You are so young, you were not around during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Going barefoot in NYC was quite common. Lots of young people were doing it then. It's sad that you have to re-learn what we already knew once. Please read the NY Times article from Sept 1, 1970, entitled "Shoelessness on the Rise". And that was the dangerous, dirtier NYC of the 70s, not the 'clean' version of today. You will have to pay 4 bucks for the article, but you need to know your history. And that what you are doing today we once took for granted. Before it went out of style during the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteI not only like to go barefoot myself, I like to see videos of young woman playing with there feet, like the one I got from youtube. I posted it on my secret page at http://www.billdentomology.com/youngwomenfeet.htm
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