A Case for VFF

Yea, taking two years, or more, to get used to being naturally barefooted seems like a lot of effort. Even if it is, I see it as worth the effort. The posture and utilizing the natural spring flex takes a great deal of stress and inflammation out of the body. The muscles that support the spine are better exercised. Joints are less stressed, preventing injuries and wear. Looking at a reflexology chart, or how the spinal nerves are attached to organs in a chiropractor’s office desplay, shows how the internal system can be affected by shoes and improper adjustment. Some natural adjustment and effort, even for a couple of years, will be worth so much in terms of long term health and quality of life, as the body gets older. AND don’t forget to do anything to avoid debilitating, or irritating back-pain. It is a complex, interrelated system that we live in. It is designed to work best, just as that.

By reducing inflammation, the new pains from body use and recovery time can be mitigated. Using something like Ibuprofen helps to minimize the downside. I have been experimenting with an Earthing half-sheet. This has given surprising results. The blood structure obviously changes as documentation shows and inflammation subsides. This has dramatically reduced aches and pains. But then, that’s another story.

Life obviously feels even better, or joyfully bare when completely nude. To get a grip on that freedom is a tantalizing goal. There is a greater wisdom to that phrase “Nude and Natural.” It IS more healthy being nude than in modern unnatural clothing and fashions, many of which are plainly unhealthy, particularly shoes.

Because trails tend to have prickers, sharp rocks and I can’t be out on them every day, I have tried different shoes to arrive at as close to barefoot as possible.

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2012-12-01

We got a smokin’ deal on a condo at a golf resort in Sedona, Arizona. It was a full apartment, fireplace, etc., the whole week, just for the price of a day. We also had a spare attached apartment with it. We then split that with DF’s cousin, who took over the property for the last couple of days. DF had to return for a training class. Smokin’!

Courthouse Rock

The weather has given us exceptional unusually high temps. Sedona was going to be high 60’s to low seventies each day and sunny. There would be lots of warming Arizona sun. It would get very cold at night. Sedona is a Woo Woo capital, with 64% of the 4 million visitors each year looking for a spiritual experience. The scenery is just amazing; the foliage ranges from high desert, to unique forest, and deciduous along the creek sides. This report will have to be presented in three parts, one each week, because of the length of the time that we spent there, and the photos of the awesome, which must be included. The setting and flavor of this trip demand pictured scenery, with free range and stealth naturism peppered amongst them. To indicate the beauty we experienced, we took over 500 shots between us, so I’ve chosen just a few….

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All of This Thing about Shoes is Relatively Recent History.

These ol’ boots probably don’t agree with me

I hear this a lot. “…they’ve (we’ve) been wearing something on our feet for the last 5,000 years or more.” Nah, sorry. I don’t see that as correct.

Today, when you head to India, vast areas of Africa and many other huge areas of the third world, most commonly, people are barefoot.

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2015-10-25

We left Saturday morning for a fashion mall in Chandler Arizona, a suburb of the Phoenix sprawl, to visit an exhibition of the Elio motor car. This 84 mpg, three wheeled , two passenger, $6800 new, car will be in production within a couple of years. I thought that it might suit my future. The trip on the interstate and finding the place was just too much trouble this morning for any nude driving. I was on a mission. Carnuding would have to wait. A speculative report about carnuding in the future Elio will follow this report.

After inspecting the prototype, in the parking lot of the mall, I pulled slightly away from foot traffic and we finally disrobed to comfort. We were going on a relaxing drive to the Hot Springs through the color and ruggedness of the Superstition Mountains, the San Carlos Indian Reservation and into the Gila River Valley. It was a pleasant couple of hours of scenic driving.

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Personal Anecdotal Observations:

And forget not that the Earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

Blind barefooting

Normally, I have to wear shoes and at the least, carry a flashlight at night, here on the desert. The possibility of scorpions, rattlesnakes, or some form of pricker is just too great. Today the temps dropped and so did the sun drop earlier than expected, catching me off guard and necessitating finishing chores after dark. The lower temps eliminate the critter problem and I had been out enough to know that I would not be likely to step on any prickers where I’m working. Amongst this, I had to load the truck with my things, making multiple trips.

I had gotten tired of the weird walk of the flip flops. I have to bend my toes to grip in this kind of shoe and the loose heel creates a partial shuffle. Another consideration is that going barefoot is spoiling me. I decided to go without shoes. Out in the driveway where this activity was taking place, there is sand, sandy loam, patches of sharp gravel and single rocks which were left over from the septic system construction. The rocks are more singularly exposed by the rain’s washing away the soils around them. I have been getting more comfortable with these chunks of rock.

The point that I’m making was the discovery that my feet walking blind at night took to the terrain very well. There was no jumping, no tip toe, nor dodging to get in between the larger pieces of rock. I couldn’t see to interfere. I couldn’t anticipate stepping on something and then shy away from it, thinking it uncomfortable. The feet just went for it and accepted it.

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2013-09-20

Back in the1970’s, Sabino Canyon was a great place for my friends and me to hang out. There we knew large boulders, and perennial water. There was a creek with pools, not very impressive to most, but in Arizona, it was quite an oasis. There was a paved road wandering up through it with bridges made of rock and concrete. The stream flowed over these often, as we splashed our tires.

We knew the best hidden spots, those without a view from the road. Usually, these were by a pool of water with smooth rocks to lie on, or jump off of. We cavorted, drinking cheap wine and smoked pot, nude. We could get into the water, or the shade of a cottonwood, to stay cooler in the summer heat. Occasionally someone might come hiking through, but they either smiled accepting, or joined us. It was wonderful peaceful fun on a warm day.

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Conditioning Feet

I have been doing a deep massage with Bag Balm, which is mostly lanolin. The balm conditions my feet, preventing cracks and softens things up to be more malleable, which is good on rocks, etc. The deep massage was radical and hurt. When I found a muscle spot hurting, I would take my thumb and press very hard, Holding down until it stopped hurting. Then I’d move an inch or d so along and do it again. I now have a whole other pair of feet. The tension caused by response to pain taught my feet to not react so sensitively, or as if tender. The relaxed muscles help the foot and body’s spring mechanics to act naturally, hitting the surfaces correctly and reacting naturally. The deep massage causes inflammation, so barefoot on moist ground and other Earthing techniques helped with that. There’s always ibuprofen. DF bought me a hard ball with rubber appendages coating it. It helps. It massages. It is a little bigger than a golfball. She found it at REI. Things like this will jumpstart your recovery from a shod life and steer your system toward a healthy response.

Walking and running on uneven surfaces helps restore balance and natural reactions. It builds muscles that have lost strength. If you can’t get out to nature, you can run around a 15 foot diameter circle, each direction. You put objects around the circumference about knee height and bend to touch them as you run by, reaching. Barefoot is about using the whole body.

Building some calluses can become closer to optimum, as time goes on, but the massage and balm have shown me that feet are pretty tough and ready to go, before that. The need to toe heel walk, lifting at the knee more and thereby lifting the foot, all of this made me realize that my feet were way off of healthy. I just hadn’t been doing those things, not in years. Feet can recover and be bare very rapidly, dramatically supporting most of the other bodily systems. I often spend an hour or two massaging my feet deeply and loving them. They immediately show a great deal of appreciation for this when we take a stroll, naked.

You know you’re old when someone compliments you on your alligator shoes, and you’re barefoot.
Phyllis Diller

2011-12-30

DF had been having a very tough time during her recovery from the surgery. It had been very discouraging and painful. Eating and work had been just one big hassle. She hadn’t been out of the city for a month. I decided to and succeeded, in getting her out into our Tortolita Mountain hills on a perfect day. I wish that I could send you a taste of the air. It was 75 and no wind to an occasional slight breeze that would caress us. In the sun it couldn’t be beat.

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Alf’s Rules for Hiking Barefoot

Alf wrote this. He is dear to many who frequented the TSNS site. He is an avid barefootist, and a fine advocate for being barefoot everywhere. This is a good knowledgeable outline and a basic barefoot footbook . In time I will take some of his points and add science, the medical reasoning, contribute my own understanding and direct you into a deeper understanding of some of these points that he gives here. For now, perhaps you may trust that this is correct and use it.

Alf’s Rules for Hiking Barefoot

1. The MOST IMPORTANT RULE is to ALWAYS STEP STRAIGHT DOWN.
2. Don’t walk as you would when wearing shoes. Instead, follow rule #3.
3. Land on the toes and balls of your feet, then shift weight to the heels.
4. Do not scuff your feet. Lift your feet properly for each stride.
5. Watch the path ahead of you to plan each footfall.
6. Keep your head up and scan your entire environment so as to enjoy the walk.
7. Try walking on different surfaces, both natural and manmade. Try mud.
8. Be BOLD, people generally don’t care that you are barefoot, so enjoy the experience.
9. Your calf muscles may get tired if you are inexperienced or if you don’t shift your weight to the heels after each footfall.
10. The arches of your feet will gradually get more pronounced and take a more natural shape.
11. The skin of your soles will gradually thicken.
12. You will learn to distinguish the difference between pain and normal sensations.
13. Beginners will probably interpret loud sensations as pain.
14. If you persist, you will want to increase your barefoot activities.
15. Walking barefoot in snow is sometimes OK, but don’t continue if you feel numb.
16. Your feet will not get sweaty and stinky, they will be healthier overall, but you must use lotion regularly, remove calloused skin from the heels, and carefully remove the occasional thorn.
17. Barefoot walking is natural, shod walking is normal (based on averages).
18. Above all, enjoy the sensations of being barefoot.

Last week, we were to make a four day trip. We would head downstream Apache Lake from the resort toward the dam on the south side, cross over to a pair of coves, hike, and return on the north side. Toxins in my foot kept me from venturing any further than the couch and a trip on crutches to the forest on Mt. Lemmon. This was with a six year old granddaughter. Hey, laying on a forest floor, sun like warm breath beaming down on my face, that breath exhuming resin flavored scents, as a gentile chillier breeze, a few degrees lower, love slaps in contrast. All along, my heart telling me that a little desert girl is taking her turn, learning the lessons of a forest, and our gifts are passed on as her gift…yea, not so bad.

So, we don’t have the trip report for the four days as planned. I had planned to have a whole roast of wondrous photos along with an adventure of stealth. I’m affixing photos of that area that were taken in 2008, when we visited Apache Lake with friends and their power boat. They can at least give you some notion of this spot on our amazing Earth. After all, that’s the fun and basis of this site, nature. The other part is that it is even more fun, more amazing and more a part of, experienced naked.

A Compelling Place

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