Shrinking Feet

Who knew that one of the results of losing 180 lbs would be smaller feet? Certainly not me.

I don't buy shoes very often; most of the shoes I own have resided in my closet for many years. I noticed that I had to tighten my Chaco's a little, but otherwise there didn't seem to be any difference in how my shoes fit. Oh except one relatively new, very darling pair that I gave away because they wouldn't stay on - I just thought I hadn't properly tried them on before buying them. Turns out, my feet had lost a lot of weight, too, I just hadn't realized it until a couple weeks ago.

Steve and I had eaten at a restaurant in downtown Salt Lake and decided to walk to the newly opened City Creek mall to check it out, since we were so close. As we walked around, I spotted a Clarks store. I used to give my mom a hard time about wearing Clarks shoes because they looked like grandma shoes, but she swore that they were so comfortable that it was worth their less than appealing looks. Well, lately, she's been showing me her new Clarks shoes and they have been really cute. I've been wanting good sandals that were cute and comfortable, so Clarks seemed like a good place to start. We went in to see if any caught my eye.

I found a really great-looking pair and wanted to try them on but had to wait a bit since the two employees were extremely busy helping other customers. While we waited, Steve and I played with the foot sizer. I hadn't seen one of those contraptions since I was a kid, so I felt like a nine-year old again as I fitted the sizers around my foot. Turns out that instead of being a size 9 like I expected, my feet are now size 7 1/2 to 8! I was surprised. Putting my faith in the sizer, those were the sizes I requested when approached by the salesman. The 7 1/2 were a tad small and they didn't have an 8 in-stock, but I ordered them to be delivered to my house after trying on a few other sandals in that size. That same weekend, I bought two other pairs of shoes - both in size 8s. They fit great!

Steve thinks it's funny that the big (to me) change in shoe size has affected me so much. I guess part of the reason is because I vaguely remember being a size 8 years and years ago, and it amazes me that I never really noticed that gradual enlargement of my feet as the rest of me grew bigger. I'm baffled that I could wear my size 9 shoes since losing weight and not notice how much they didn't fit. Today is the first time I wore one of my old shoes since buying my three size 8s. My feet are miserable; slipping and sliding all over the place as I walk.

I guess this means that this Fall I'll be buying new cold weather shoes! Woohoo!

Three and a half years after my surgery and almost 2 years since reaching my target weight, and I'm still having little moments of "Wow!" about my new body. They are so nice to have and really help keep me motivated to maintain my current weight.

Again, who knew that feet lose weight too?

Weird. But cool.