I have had a 10 year love affair with shoes. Pretty shoes especially high heels! The higher the better! Sadly, I have realized at the tender age of 25, that my poor feet cannot handle the stress of cheap or narrow toed shoes or shoes with high, high heels anymore :(
I need shoes that have cushioning, support and a wider toe box. I can't handle high heels like I could 5 years ago. Which wasn't a big deal at my old job because I could wear tennis shoes and jeans everyday but at my new job I need to be more business casual so tennis shoes are not always acceptable.
And the adorable, affordable flats of Target are terrible: no support, and they smoosh my poor toes together. My pinkie's are being forced to curve and its creating the painful, beginning stages of a bunion on the side of my feet.
My feet and legs can't stand up to the pressure of wearing 4-inch heels all day while walking anymore. My whole body will hurt if I try. Mostly, in my lower back, the balls of my feet and once again my toes. Even my toe-nails will hurt!! (Say what?!?)
I am however thankful that because of my training as a running shoe expert fitter that I recognized the signs before things got too bad. (I saw some pretty nasty feet of women who refused to accept their actual shoe size or who had crammed their feet into heels and flats for too long.)
For me, it started last spring when I realized my foot hurt and my pinkie toe's weren't where they should and used to be. Luckily, the weather was warming up and wearing sandals and going barefoot were just around the corner. Over the summer I worked to correct this issue by not wearing shoes that enclosed my feet if at all avoidable, unless tennis shoes with wide toe boxes, and wearing my Vibrams (toe shoes when I could).
The sad thing is I had just bought a pair of Chuck Taylor's and I can hardly wear them because of the narrow toe box :( Jon and I took a day trip to my Alma Mater in the fall, I wore my Chuck's and was almost in tears by the end of the day walking around campus!
But Ladies, this is a warning that sometimes we need to think about the long-term side effects are our love affair with shoes! What you do when you are young will affect you when your older, in all things! I'm now on the hunt for cute shoes that are healthy for my feet and body. Now, occasionally I will wear my super adorable but totally impracticable shoes; key word is occasionally.
I'm just thankful I realized the change I needed to make before it was too late, because I can't afford surgery to fix the problem! :)
I'm also on the hunt for good, healthy flats for work...still rocking my cheapy shoes but my knees, ankles and feet are killing me more and more.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
That Moment You Realize...
I am becoming my parents!
Oh what a sad realization that is when it hits you... For The Hill's - The Younger (aka me and Jon) its been a slow realization but has been made more clear lately.
Yesterday was Jon's 30th birthday. He is not a happy camper about getting older but I'm of the mind that nothing will change the passage of time. We can't age backwards like Benjamin Button, we can only move forward and accept the aging process.
Anyway, we went to dinner with his parents and then decided to go run an errand. We live in Illinois, and Jon has a job were he's outside a lot but he doesn't have good cold-weather gear. (The man didn't have a winter work coat!!) We went to Dick's and were looking found what he wanted but either they didn't have his size or the sticker shock got us.
1. Sticker shock - I believe this hits men differently than women and at different stages. I hit it a few years ago when I decided to be more responsible with grocery, home decor, and clothes shopping. Jon, I believe really just hit it last night. He's always been a, "here is what I want, and I'm going to buy the first one I see" instead of pricing and shopping around.
So, with Dick's being a bust, I suggested we try somewhere else, he wanted Carhartt's, where's one of the best places to find Carhartt's? Farm'n'Fleet!
2. We enjoyed shopping at Farm'n'Fleet and will be back - as children we both hated when our dad's needed to go to Farm'n'Fleet. It was boring and had nothing for us as children, I thought the clothes ugly. Oh, how wrong we were!
Jon ended up with a new winter work coat, long underway, and work gloves. He's still on the hunt for overalls (they didn't have his size, WTH?) and a face mask.
Driving away, we talked about how much we underestimated the wonders of Farm'n'Fleet and came to the realization... we are slowly turning into our parents.
Not a bad thing because both our parents have had lasting marriages, worked good/hard jobs and have reached that peak in life that we would call success. I'm curious to see how much we end up like them in the future...
Oh what a sad realization that is when it hits you... For The Hill's - The Younger (aka me and Jon) its been a slow realization but has been made more clear lately.
Yesterday was Jon's 30th birthday. He is not a happy camper about getting older but I'm of the mind that nothing will change the passage of time. We can't age backwards like Benjamin Button, we can only move forward and accept the aging process.
Anyway, we went to dinner with his parents and then decided to go run an errand. We live in Illinois, and Jon has a job were he's outside a lot but he doesn't have good cold-weather gear. (The man didn't have a winter work coat!!) We went to Dick's and were looking found what he wanted but either they didn't have his size or the sticker shock got us.
1. Sticker shock - I believe this hits men differently than women and at different stages. I hit it a few years ago when I decided to be more responsible with grocery, home decor, and clothes shopping. Jon, I believe really just hit it last night. He's always been a, "here is what I want, and I'm going to buy the first one I see" instead of pricing and shopping around.
So, with Dick's being a bust, I suggested we try somewhere else, he wanted Carhartt's, where's one of the best places to find Carhartt's? Farm'n'Fleet!
2. We enjoyed shopping at Farm'n'Fleet and will be back - as children we both hated when our dad's needed to go to Farm'n'Fleet. It was boring and had nothing for us as children, I thought the clothes ugly. Oh, how wrong we were!
Jon ended up with a new winter work coat, long underway, and work gloves. He's still on the hunt for overalls (they didn't have his size, WTH?) and a face mask.
Driving away, we talked about how much we underestimated the wonders of Farm'n'Fleet and came to the realization... we are slowly turning into our parents.
Not a bad thing because both our parents have had lasting marriages, worked good/hard jobs and have reached that peak in life that we would call success. I'm curious to see how much we end up like them in the future...
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Snow Day 2014!
January 6, 2014 - Snow Day = No work for me!
Yesterday was a snow day for me from work! WooHooo! Jon's "weekend" (days off) just happen to be Sunday/Monday, so we got 2 full days of nothing but each other because we were homebound due to the snow and extreme cold!
Sunday, we did go out and shovel our driveway, it took about 2 hours! But I did get some play time in the backyard - jumping in a drift and making a snow angel before heading inside! Duncan was out with us in the backyard, we were clearing a path for him to go potty; he was not a fan of me jumping in the snow, he came bounding over to make sure I was okay.
The rest of the time was spent reading, Jon playing his Christmas/birthday present = PS4, and I did get sucked into the season premier of Downtown Abbey; we ended the night by watching Man of Steel in bed. And I even made Jon one of his favorite suppers for his upcoming B-day! Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn.
Monday - I win the best wife award! I decided I couldn't handle another day of watching Jon play video games so instead we had a Lord of The Rings: Trilogy, Extended Edition! We made it through 5 of the 6 total DVD's in the Trilogy. We did have a break because we needed to go out and dig out Jon's work car and make a path for me to get on to the street from the driveway.
And today it's back to work in the freezing weather but on an exciting note it is Jon's 30th Birthday! Needless to say he is not quite as excited about this birthday as in years past but I hoping he'll get over his dislike of getting old, because there's no stopping. But here's to another year of awesome for my Boy!
Yesterday was a snow day for me from work! WooHooo! Jon's "weekend" (days off) just happen to be Sunday/Monday, so we got 2 full days of nothing but each other because we were homebound due to the snow and extreme cold!
Sunday, we did go out and shovel our driveway, it took about 2 hours! But I did get some play time in the backyard - jumping in a drift and making a snow angel before heading inside! Duncan was out with us in the backyard, we were clearing a path for him to go potty; he was not a fan of me jumping in the snow, he came bounding over to make sure I was okay.
The rest of the time was spent reading, Jon playing his Christmas/birthday present = PS4, and I did get sucked into the season premier of Downtown Abbey; we ended the night by watching Man of Steel in bed. And I even made Jon one of his favorite suppers for his upcoming B-day! Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn.
Monday - I win the best wife award! I decided I couldn't handle another day of watching Jon play video games so instead we had a Lord of The Rings: Trilogy, Extended Edition! We made it through 5 of the 6 total DVD's in the Trilogy. We did have a break because we needed to go out and dig out Jon's work car and make a path for me to get on to the street from the driveway.
And today it's back to work in the freezing weather but on an exciting note it is Jon's 30th Birthday! Needless to say he is not quite as excited about this birthday as in years past but I hoping he'll get over his dislike of getting old, because there's no stopping. But here's to another year of awesome for my Boy!
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