The Foot Chronicles

My days are pretty ordinary. I get up at 7 a.m., shower, take my kids to school, go to work, pick up my kids, go home, eat, go to sleep. Repeat. I'm on my feet for most of the day and wearing uncomfortable shoes no less. So after a few weeks of this monontanous schedule, my tired

eyeballs eventually roll down to my hooves and i am shocked at what i see. Two sad, neglected

pair of hurt feet. And when i say "hurt" i mean both physically and mentally. (Side note: This is not actually picture of my feet just in case you were wondering and maybe threw up a little bit in your mouth at the site of it). My feet, like i mentioned earlier are upset at me. How could i let this happen to them? They are reliable, responsible and take me from point A to point B effortlessly. Not to mention they suck it up when i stuff them into ridiculously uncomfortable shoes day after day.  My good friends Christy and Laura and I once joked that we thought the cleanliness of a woman's foot was a direct reflection of the cleanliness of other "private" parts of her body.  We got a good laugh out of that statement, and quickly changed our minds when we looked down and saw our own neglected, chipped, ashy feet.

So the three self-proclaimed beauty goddesses of the world all packed up our things and decided to go for pedicures at a local nail salon. When the nail tech handed me the menu, i felt like i was ordering at a fancy restaurant. Way too many choices. Rose-Petal pedicures. Strawberry Margharita pedicures. Cooling Cucumber pedicures and so on and so forth. All i really wanted was for someone to get the crud out of my toenails and massage my bloated feet. The pedicure i chose used real fruit pieces which i actually found to be a bit wasteful. I didn't think that wrapping pieces of strawberries and slices of lime with cellophane around my calves served any purpose. I probably would have rather been eating it off a plate especially since i had not eaten lunch yet. My girlfriends agreed. Nevertheless, we left relatively satisfied with our new moisturized, polished feet. So at this point, you might be asking yourself why I am telling you my tale of insignificant turmoil. Well, it's simple. There are plenty of ways of making your feet look perfect in between the costly weekly trips to the nail salon.

Good foot requires life long maintenance.  Here are some facts about feet that i found interesting:

- The largest feet in the world belong to a man by the name of Matthew McGory whose feet are a whopping 28 1/2 (U.S. size). His bunions must definitely be the size of large golf balls.

- The average person steps 10,000 steps a day. During a lifetime that means almost 115,000 miles! It's a wonder we can't lose weight with numbers like that.

- 25% bones in the human body are located in our feet. And can you imagine that 25% is supporting the rest of the 75% of bones we have!

- Feet contain 250,000 seat glands and excrete as much as half a pint of moisture everyday. That is the main reason why they can smell so funky.

There are a few things you can do at home to maintain proper foot care in between those costly trips to the nail salon.  The first thing to do is SOAK.  Not only does it feel good on our feet to soak them in warm water, but it loosens up dead skin as well. BUFF- Invest in a foot file that wont completely wear your skin to the bones.  Concentrate on the heals and balls of you feet and on any bunions you may have.  MOISTURIZE - Everyday!  Invest in a good lotion that doesn't dry out immediately.  Also, purchase cuticle oil.  It only takes a few drops around your nails to make them immediately look healthy.  But here is a warning for all you obsessive ladies and men both who use cuticle nippers on their feet regularly.  The chance of you snipping yourself is high plus the more you cut off, the MORE grows back. CHANGE SHOES REGULARLY - Just because your 6 inch Christian Lacroix black stillettos go with all your outfits doesn't mean you have to wear them everyday to show off.  Throw on a pair of flip flops or ballerina flats once in awhile.

The great philosopher Socrates once said, "When our feet hurt, we hurt all over." Just ask the ladies all over the world who own pairs of Manola Blahniks. So love your tootsies and take great care of them!