Going Shoeless Offers Sensory Bliss, Strong Soles

Great positive, objective article. It's rare to see a non-bias testimonial to barefoot living like this one.
I have been leading a barefoot lifestyle for the last 20 years and my feet are in the best shape ever.
Thanks for this article. Please visit my site: http://www.barefootcanada.ca/toronto

Baretoot Moe
Toronto, Canada

Good Job Joann!
I think the story was well put together, with a positive spin on barefooting.
Art

I'm almost 52 and I have been going bare foot for as long as I can remember. In the summer I keep my sandles in the car and just slip them on when I go in a store. In the winter I can walk in the snow out to the mail box, let the dogs out. It's great! I love it and wouldn't have it any other way.

I think the author means www.barefooters.org . The other is a barefoot water skiing site. I'm a barefoot runner and there is a lot of good information out there; even runners doing marathons and ultramarathons up to 100 miles on both roads and trails. After years of patellar tendinitis, IT bands, stress fractures, and shin splins, I now run injury and pain free due to shoeless running and walking. Its great for muddy or raining conditions. And, you never worry about forgetting running shoes. If I wear my running shorts to bed, I hop up in the morning and head out the door. How freeing is that?

Lack of news much? The Courant shocks me at times...

What's next? Bare legs?*GASP* we've already got that!

This could lead to public nudity!

*panics*

On a funnier note, it's hilarious that even an inch of column space is being devoted to the "barefoot movement".

Andy wrote:

If I wear my running shorts to bed, I hop up in the morning and head out the door. How freeing is that?

If "freeing" includes stepping in doggy doo....EEEECCCCHHHHH

Huh wrote:

Lack of news much? The Courant shocks me at times...

Does everything in the newspaper have to be about politics, war, etc. for you?

It's an interesting article. Nobody is forcing you to read it

Other than the obvious hazards of dog/animal waste and hornets nests, bare feet during the warm months are comfortable. One of my highschool math teachers (who only wore sandals) called shoes "coffins for the feet." Of course, diabetics and other people are advised to wear protective foot wear.

I have heard of some runners/sprinters who only run barefoot. Does that give them any advantage over the runners wearing running shoes?

I've been barefoot and wearing shoes at the same time for a few months now. I wear Vibram Five Fingers shoes. They have a thin rubber sole and are split for each of your toes. They afford some foot protection while allowing for full foot flexiblity. It's the best of both worlds! Just google 'Vibram Five Fingers' for pics and more info.

A Slippery Slope wrote:

<quoted text>
If "freeing" includes stepping in doggy doo....EEEECCCCHHHHH

If looking were your going is too much work for you by all means keep your shoes on!

I love going barefoot as much as possible except for those very hot days when the cement can be unbearable. Nothing beats kicking off my heels and just barefooting it through the rest of my day. My husband for a long time wouldn't dream of it and he's finally given in and is even building our sunporch barefoot. Great article !

I hate shoes. I wear them only when I have to. I wear sandels from April to Nov so I can take them off under my desk. I also have been known to walk out to my car in the snow barefoot to get something I forgot etc.

Thanks for a fair, fun article on a simple and healthy lifestyle choice.

Very interesting article. I am intrigued!

JJP wrote:

<quoted text>
Does everything in the newspaper have to be about politics, war, etc. for you?
It's an interesting article. Nobody is forcing you to read it

As has been stated, you increase your awareness and are LESS likely to step in doggie doo than if you have shoes on.

Jessica wrote:

<quoted text>
As has been stated, you increase your awareness and are LESS likely to step in doggie doo than if you have shoes on.

Was there a government grant documenting this that I missed? Durn. I hate getting all my news from Doggie Do Entertainment News. I'm switching to Sex and Dog Do in the City. My Manolo Blahniks have heels so I never step on excrement. In fact, my friends and I have never ever seen excrement in our neighborhood. I know it must happen, but not to us!

When it comes to doggie doo, of course it's so much better to step on it with the tread of our shoes and then track it into the house, than to step on it barefoot, realize it immediately because we can feel it, wipe it off, and keep it out of the house.

Good thinking, folks!

How true it is. I continue to be incurably audacious and go barefoot whenever I can get away with it. I hike that way, run that way, and go barefoot at gatherings when I can. I was even at a recent cast party at a bar barefoot,and the only comment I got was from my feet sighing with relief. So far the warnings I keep hearing to "never go barefoot" by Big Med sound merely precautional and obviously not by former barefooters who recieved any new light. It's all about liability and never really about safety.

Shoeless in Seattle

Ahcuah wrote:

When it comes to doggie doo, of course it's so much better to step on it with the tread of our shoes and then track it into the house, than to step on it barefoot, realize it immediately because we can feel it, wipe it off, and keep it out of the house.
Good thinking, folks!

Wow. Brilliant. We should walk around without clothes on, too, so we know when it is hot and cold. And don't use toilet paper so you can 'feel' when you need to bathe. Why use sanitary female products? How will the rest of us be able to tell when it's your 'time fo the month'?