To be clear, I do not like feet, never have, never will. It doesn’t matter if you claim to have the most beautiful, pristine feet in the world, I will find fault with them. I mean, seriously, just look at them. They’re long and spindly, or fat and wide. They’ve got bunions, and calluses, and blisters and toe jam and jaundice-like discolouration and yeah, they stink too. And as such, I’ve never really been one to enjoy a good rubbing of the feet, and don’t even think to ask me to touch your grody foot matter. But that being said, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Hello plantar fasciitis, I so have not missed you!
So, the overstretched feeling in my right foot did turn out to be a flare up of that not-so-welcomed plantar fasciitis I suffered two years ago. I tried living in denial, thinking it would go away, but it did not, oh no, it seems to have gotten a bit worse. And with race day fast approaching – like, tomorrow – I don’t have time to wait for it to heal on its own. So, on the urging of my soap gal – who’s as much a foot hater as I am, but is also a recently reformed pedicure lover – I called up my mom’s yogi yesterday morning, who also does reflexology, and she fit me in for the afternoon. I was totally freaking out about it all day. I so thought I was gonna boot her in the face the second she touched me … did I mention I’m super ticklish!
When I got to the studio, mom’s yogi asked me if I was interested in partaking in some sound-light therapy, while undergoing the reflexology. Now, I’ll be honest, when my mom first mentioned this sound-light therapy thing, I just sluffed it off as being another one of her peace, love, happy hippie endeavors. But I figured, hey, I’m allowing someone to touch my feet, I might as well try and find my inner dirty hippie as well!
The theory behind sound-light therapy is it’s supposed to result in a full body – mental and physical – relaxation. The blinding blue circle lights flashing at you from inside the goggles (I wasn’t aware, at first, that I was supposed to shut my eyes, oops!) combined with the soothing sounds coming from the headphones, is supposed to reduce anxiety and induce a deep mental and physical relaxation. The stimulation is also supposed to increase the release of dopamine, serotonin, acetycholine, norepinephrine and endorphins, all good things for a calmer state of mind – oh man, this is so hippie.
Sound-light Therapy Benefits:
- Increased relaxation
- Decreased tension
- Improved memory
- Increased ability to focus and concentrate
- Decreased fatigue
- Increased IQ
- Increased creativity
I tried fighting it at first, as I’m not much for relaxation. The room was dark; mom’s yogi was firmly digging into and kneading my feet (turns out I had no need to worry about a soft tickling effect, this was not soft at all!); and I was staring at the bright lights, silently mocking the treasure box I was supposed to put all my worries and stresses and bad people into. But then I shut my eyes, and oh man, from that point on, I was a goner! Even though I was fully awake, it seriously felt like I was asleep. My breathing wasn’t the quick short breaths that I’m used too, but rather the full diaphragm breathing that my yogi always tries to get out of me. My jaw was lax, and my mouth was open a smidge just like it is when I’m out for the night. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force my eyes back open. And for the life of me, despite hearing the voices, I had no real awareness of what they were saying.
Mom’s yogi told me that the therapy induces the REM state of when you’re just about to doze off, and that the 40 minutes of therapy I had was equivalent to four hours of REM sleep – now that’s something I can get behind. Bring on the dirty hippie!
TODAY’S EXERCISE
- 9 a.m. BG before 6.0 (granola bar with 1/2 bolus of .50 units)
- 75 minutes yoga
- 10:30 a.m. BG after 4.8
With the race tomorrow, my plan is to go into it like it’s just a regular Sunday 10k jaunt. I don’t want to overdo it and make things worse with my foot … but, then again, when I see all the people around me, my competitive side may very well show her face 😉
What sort of remedies do you use to fix/ease plantar fasciitis?
I seem to recall you painting some guy’s toe nails almost a year ago???
Only because I had some evil bridesmaids who forced me to do so 🙂
Now isn”t my yogi friend the best AND I have the light sound theapy at home if you are ever interested in using it again….we love it!
Have a great race tomorrow and you didn’t win the west jet 50/50 Erv’s cousin did….
So glad to hear you found your inner dirty hippie. I kinda figured you had it in you 🙂 And you need not be “dirty” to be a dirty hippie. Some hippies, you will be shocked to learn, were actually clean freaks way before clean freaks became trendy. Hope you had a good run 🙂
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