Happy Feet!

Gloves for the feet?

No one really thinks about their feet much, well, except when you have shoes that don’t fit and your feet hurt!  To my surprise, feet have more muscles than I ever imagined:

The foot and ankle contain: 26 bones (One-quarter of the bones in the human body are in the feet.); 33 joints; more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments (Tendons are fibrous tissues that connect muscles to bones and ligaments are fibrous tissues that connect bones to other bones.)

Most shoes make our foot muscles lazy….we have coddled them our whole life!  I have been “barefoot ing” around our property since April and really loving it( aside from the one time I inadvertently stepped on a bee….boy, that really hurt….foot swelled up to the size of a football!)

What does all this have to do with my upcoming adventure?  Well I have been experimenting with some new shoes which are actually more like gloves, since I don’t want to risk injury to my bare (not!) feet while hiking or even just strolling down the streets of Amsterdam.  These shoes are super light with Vibram soles ( they are actually made by Vibram)….aha, so super easy to pack into the ever expanding backpack!  Wearing these shoes definitely takes some adjustment time(putting them on is also a challenge….directions inside the box!)…there is even a warning on the box to start out slowly, up to 2 hours the first day gradually increasing the time over a 2 week period.  They also give suggested foot strengthening exercises on their website!  Wow…more science!

Needless to say, I’m hooked…my 3rd pair arrived today in the mail.  These are the fleece lined, waterproof variety and very sturdy!

I am thinking I will be able to take ALL 3 pairs to Europe!!!!!