I love high heels.  High heels are the best.  They make your legs look long and beautiful.  You can tower over others and hold your head high at your remarkable skills of stability on mini stilts.  They are just the best.  Unless your feet hurt.  Then they suck monkey ass.  If I’m not trying to impress anyone you will find me in running shoes.

A few years ago I got a stress fracture in my left foot.  This made perfect sense as I was running a lot at the time.  The problem is I didn’t get the stress fracture while running.  I sustained the injury when I missed a step while getting into the jacuzzi at a Burke Williams spa.  That’s right … to recap my life I’ve gotten a stress fracture by relaxing in a spa and gave myself a concussion by closing the back hatch door of my car on my head.  I’m my own worse enemy.

Stress fractures are a pain in the bum.  They take a long time to heal and often recur.  They almost always recur if you don’t give them enough time to heal in the first place which is why I often have pain in my left foot.

Running and hiking a lot also caused me to have a lot of pain in the balls of my feet.  This is mostly due to my super high arch.  No “normal” shoe or insoles ever touches my arch.  I’ve since had custom insoles made.  These suckers are expensive but worth every penny.

Custom insoles can’t always be used and even if they are they sometimes need a little help.  Here are some things I’ve found really help with feet pain while exercising.

SOCKS – I remember a time when I didn’t know that there were more than one kind of sock.  I was so young and ignorant.  First of all, I don’t know why they make any socks without that extra arch support stitching.  If a sock doesn’t have that I don’t want them near my feet.  When I first starting having feet problems I went to the running store and was convinced by the salesman that I needed to purchase $15 (ish) dollar socks.  Since I’m use to getting about 8 pair in a giant bag for that cost I was horrified.  BEST $15 ISH DOLLARS EVER SPENT.  I now own three of these pair of socks and get really depressed when they are all in the dirty laundry.  The brand that sold me on superman style socks?  Balega.  They are like a hug for your feet while walking on a bed of cotton candy.  I went to their site to see what kind of magic they use to make such a wonderful product but alas it was much too complicated and lost my attention after a few minutes.  Let’s just call it magic.

KT TAPE – I’ve written about this before but I can’t emphasize enough how magical this stuff is.  I normally use it for extra arch support (which isn’t what I have pictured here).  If my feet start to hurt the KT TAPE comes out.

SLIPPERS – As you know I adore Bar Method.  One of the items you must wear in class is socks.  They do have special “Barre” socks that have griper rubber stuff on the bottom.  This is to make it harder for your feet to sleep around when you are doing things like bicep curls while in wide second position.  Since I’ve always been on the tad dramatic side I owned a pair of ballerina slippers and wore them to class one day.  I was sold!  The ballet slippers where the little piece of foot magic I needed for class.  Recently I reached into my Bar bag and grabbed my one pair of Barre socks instead of my slippers.  I was running late and could already hear the instructor counting for the first exercise so I quickly pulled on the socks and took off to the studio.  Not using my ballet slippers showed me how much I love them.  Not only was I slip sliding around (even with the gripers) but positions up on the balls of my feet (there are many) KILLED me.  That thin little ballerina slipper is doing something to help protect the balls of my feet and hold my foot in the correct position.  Plus it looks better when you point your foot in a ballerina slipper.    I’ve had a number of pairs but prefer the brand Bloch over Capezio.  The inside of the shoe seems to last longer (remember I’m not really dancing in them I’m only doing Bar Method).  I always buy them through Zappos because I’m too lazy to find a ballerina store.  There is nothing funnier than reading the bad reviews for ballet slippers on Zappos.  Women who are furious that there is no arch support and only a felt sole deserve to have their money taken from them.  (The ballet slipper pictured hasn’t had the straps sewn down yet which is why they look funky.  They are new.  And yes that is dust on the toe because although they are new I bought them ions ago and have yet taken the time to sew those darn straps on!)

There you go!  My tips to happier feet.  Of course when push comes to shove and you need to wear heels you just gotta suck it up and remember how amazing your legs look!