My Journey With Health And Fitness – Taking Care Of My Feet

So I am officially on day 4 of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Dry February (in reality I started Jan 30th) and it is going well. I’ve done this several times in the past but it is at times it was a bit of a struggle with things like social engagements, Super Bowl, etc. This time though it is not just me and my sister participating but also my husband. I admit I do feel better for not drinking and I believe it is helping my training. One of the things I have done this year is downloaded their daily tracker which is just a picture of a wine glass with sections indicating 28 days. Each day you colour in that section until you hit day 28 and the wine glass is full. I am using a burgundy marker so it looks like red wine. I will note, while I feel great the whole sleep better thing does not happen for me. What does though is my resting heart rate is much lower.

The other day I had a look at the treads on my runners and realized it is time to change up to new ones. Normally they should last about 6 months but because I alternate a pair each day I get a year out of them. Fortunately before my husband retired last year I had him stop at a New Balance clearance centre in the States and pick me up a couple pair. Even with exchange I stilled saved about 25% compared to up here. Regardless, they are expensive which means I use them only for walking/running and not for general day to day outdoor activities. That helps them last as long as possible.

I wear really good, supportive runners because I am very cognizant of my feet and taking care of them. Yes, I probably have less to worry about than most diabetics because my glucose levels are so under control but I know because of my brother how quickly things can go south (and hence why he is now an amputee). Because of that I take care of my feet. The first step for me is having good running shoes and replacing them as soon as they have noticeable wear. I always wear compression socks when I am running/walking to help the circulation in my feet, another problem often experienced by diabetics. I never workout without my toe sock (a rubber sleeve that goes over one of my toes) to avoid developing another corn because those suckers are painful. I also ensure every time I shower or swim that I dry my feet well especially between my toes. I avoid wandering around in bare feet to protect myself from inadvertently stepping on something and causing a puncture (ok, that one might be a bit of paranoia but that is how my brother ended up losing his leg). Finally, I inspect my feet regularly looking for any sort of sore or even callus that might be an issue.

When you push your feet as much as I do it is imperative that you take care of them. Putting a little effort in upfront prevents issues and injuries going forward. I also have my feet checked by a podiatrist annually. And while this is more about vanity, I have a pedicure every couple months which means someone else checking for anything I might have missed. On this point I will note, I had runner’s toe on one of my big toes which is when from beating your toes up running the toe nail turns black and in my case it eventually fell off. That’s when I learned my pedicure lady could actually build me an artificial toe nail which looked exactly like a normal nail.

So do yourself a favour, take care of your feet. It is so worth it in the end.