One day, Judy made her way into a local bookstore searching for some answers. From the time she was a young woman, walking had always given her a great deal of peace and comfort. Unfortunately, this quickly changed when Judy began experiencing deep shooting pains in her feet. Although difficult for her to accept, as she had always identified herself as a fairly active person, she put up with the pain for 30 years. Now, as a bright and soft-spoken 72-year old things were about to change.
She came across a copy of The Barefoot Book by Daniel Howell PhD. After diving head first – better yet, feet first – into the book, Judy immediately picked up the phone to schedule an appointment with Dr. Ray McClanahan (the doctor who wrote the introduction). She didn’t know it at the time, but that decision would lead her to the answer she was looking for.
Shortly after implementing the suggestions offered by Dr. McClanahan and Daniel Howell, Judy experienced noticeable improvements. For so long she felt the problem was her feet, but now it was clear, cumulative time spent in narrow and ill-fitting shoes are to blame. The reality is, we are being forced to make our feet fit the shape of shoes, instead of the other way around.
After living with pain that limited her activity for so many years, Judy is ready to share her frustrations. There are thousands of options for shoes, she mentions, but all of them have a narrow toe box that constricts our feet.
“It seems like there is so much misinformation about feet and ignorance. It’s like the dark ages as far as feet…”
“I’m pretty upset about the shoe industry. There must have been some knowledge of what’s going on, there has to be. I think they’re almost as bad as the tobacco industry, for not taking care of us. I get pretty upset about that because I’m suffering.”
With this new found knowledge, she decided to take matters into her own hands. After a three-month wait for a book at the library, she checked out: Making Your Own Shoes by Sharon Raymond. Judy studied the book and used the guidelines to make her own shoes. She was so happy with the final product and was convinced it was one of the best things she had ever done for herself.
Watch the full video on Judy’s story here and let us know what you think. Use the hashtag #JudyCT to keep the conversation going.
