Whole Health: your feet!

Interesting article popped up in my morning news perusal: Feet: the foundation for fitness and it made me think of the fitness blogs I read and the foot problems many of those writers' experience!

I've actually shied away from running because of the high impact it has on the feet/legs. Well, that, and because I suck at running :) But I always noticed that it was so much harder on my feet than my other favored exercises (walking, yoga, body-weight strength training and hiking).

Feet carry us through our lives. We are dependent on them for transportation and many types of exercise. They are also pretty delicate mechanisms - the article talks about how a quarter of our bones are in our feet/ankles! And it goes into the fact that we all care so much about stability, and often focus on our legs and core for stability and strength, but that all starts with the feet. Definitely need to take care of them, whether you are doing high impact sports or not.

They recommend strengthening your feet and incorporating that into your regular exercise/self-care routine. From the article:

"Simply trying to pick up a washcloth, towel or marbles with the feet fires up the muscles that build arch strength, he said. Standing on one foot for 10 seconds is also a good way to build core strength.

Bowman suggests doing exercises such as spreading, pointing and individually lifting the toes, rolling a tennis ball underfoot, and standing on tiptoe to strengthen the calves."

So I wanted to throw that out there, something to keep in mind :)

Especially as I move into this new phase in my life, I want to really get back to the original purpose of this blog - that this is for total health, for life. No quick fixes. No short cuts. Not focusing on just one aspect of health, one sport, one diet. Just plain old good taking care of your mind and body to ensure the best health possible.

This is possible. It is not COMMON in our society of narrow-focus and quick results. People want what they want, in almost a child-like manner. They will rework true science to be able to feel like they are living well, even if in the end, it is harmful. Truth is truth, and there is no altering of that, no taking the easy way out. The body is multi-faceted - it requires complete nutrition, exercise that includes the whole body (strength and endurance!), as well as mental-care.

So maybe it might not be easy to focus on total health - but it can be fun :) There are a multitude of different ways to achieve this, and I hope to explore those at the same time as telling you all how I personally go about it.

That's enough for today for me. I'll try to focus more on these issues, because they are what is important to me.

Otherwise, things are fine! I had a tougher day yesterday with nausea/fatigue. But I slept 10 hours last night and am feeling better this morning. I got right into bed when I got home from work, Chris made me eggs with sweet potatoes, we had banana ice cream (paleo: it's just frozen bananas!) after, I watched some television and fell asleep. Not the most productive evening, but I needed it.

Have a great day, namaste <3