I have had the pleasure of camping the last two weekends. Two weekends ago Nicky and I went to the Whitesville Rod & Gun Club with the Boy Scouts for a fishing Camp-o-ree. Even though we didn’t catch anything we still had fun being outdoors and away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
This past weekend we went to the Robert H. Treman State Park near Ithaca, NY. This place was amazingly beautiful and had multiple trails you could hike near the gorges. With its series of waterfalls, Treman State Park offered many photo opportunities. Hopefully my friend Ali will post the pictures he took online so I can repost them here.
Words cannot describe how breathtaking some of the views were. So, let’s hope I can put some pictures up soon.
Also, I purchased some Banjo Minnows and I’m going to test them out today. Hopefully I’ll be posting a picture and a story about how I caught “The Big One” later tonight.
When did being barefoot become a taboo? When I go out barefoot I am constantly met with downcast eyes and comments about my lack of footwear. It’s as if I have a face tattoo and drinking from a water bottle full of urine.
Being barefoot in certain places is acceptable, such as: the beach, pool, your home, and…that’s pretty much it. Why do people feel so strongly about wearing shoes? Is it because of hygiene? Do they think that it is the law to have shoes on?
I can understand people feeling a little weirded out about someone not wearing shoes if they are a clean freak. Most people view feet as “dirty”, but as for the law…not so. You are allowed to be shoeless in any retail establishment, INCLUDING restuarants. Just check out http://barefooters.org/health-dept/ Here you can find a letter from your state’s health department stating that there are no current health codes that require a patron have footwear on.
I have been going barefoot so often now, that I forget to take my shoes with me places. If I think ahead and know I’m going to be somewhere that may confront me about my lack of footwear I will bring some flip flops along with me. I keep them either in a cargo pocket or in a small cooler I carry with me almost everywhere.
This last week I have had the more confrontations than I have in the the last 2 months of being barefoot. I went to the Mall with a couple of my friends. We went to Sears, Dave and Busters, and a couple other little stores. The entire time we were in Sears I was barefoot. Nobody asked me to put shoes on. I was not thrown out of the mall for lack of footwear. I like Sears. The other little stores we stopped at, including the food court, didn’t have a problem with my bare feet either. But when I was in D&B I was told that I had to have shoes on. The Manager told me this after I had already been without shoes on in his establishment for over an hour. I was in the middle of playing a boxing game that requires you to dodge and step side to side. If I had been wearing my flip flops it would have been likely that I would have ended up with a twisted ankle. I told the manager that I had taken off my flip flops to play the game. He says, “Yeah, sure. Just make sure you put them on when you’re done.” So, after I lost the game I put my flip flops on, made sure the manager was watching, and left. I saw that he was still looking when I instantly removed my sandles after I crossed the threshold of his store and the mall.
I could have challenged him about the whole “shoes are required” thing, but I wasn’t in the mood. Instead, I decided to cause a minor scene and show my distaste for shoes…and Dave and Busters.
When we left D&B we decided to go home. We were walking towards the exit, my friends with shoes on, me with my flip flops in my little cooler, when a security guard asked me put my shoes on. I did as I was told and left the mall.
I didn’t have an argument fot the security guard. He was right, I needed to have shoes on. You see, there are no violations for being barefoot in a retail establishment, but the hallways of a mall are private property. When you are in a store, you can be barefoot. As soon as you walk out, they can tell you to put shoes on and they are in the right.
So, after all that, how does this Taboo make you feel? Do you find feet dirty? Do you find it freeing to be barefoot? How often do you go barefoot and where do you do it?
It has been a crazy period in my life. I became ordained in the Church of Latter-Day Dude (Dudeism), one of my best friends passed away and I’ve just been trying to get by. Fishing, Bowling and what-have-you have really helped, as well as friends and family. I thank everyone for the support. Hopefully we here at Barefoot Buffalo will be back on track with the postings. Also, be ready to see a slight shift in where this site goes. Not so much as a change, more like an addition to the Paleo, MovNat, Barefoot life.
If you have anything you would like to hear my opinion/spin on let me know and I’ll cover it as soon as I can. Don’t be shy people! Help me help you. I abide.
The first Dudesim service hosted by Barefoot Buffalo is to be held at Transit Lanes tomorrow, Monday 13th around 10:00pm. The games are only $0.75 and shoe rental is $3.25 I hope to see a good turnout to this.
We are trying to minimize the ammount of junk we have at
our apartment. One step we took was condensing all of our DVDs and
games into one book instead of having all of the cases taking up
room. Here are some pictures of the results.
A question that I get asked a lot is, “What is MovNat?” The simple explanation is: MovNat is using your body as nature intended. Alright, that’s not really a simple answer. It actually creates more questions. To really understand what MovNat is you should check out the website www.movnat.com. MovNat is made up of what they call the 3 Pillars. These are: 1) Natural 2) Evolutionary 3) Situational.
Natural (Respecting Laws of Nature): “MovNat is an environmental-oriented concept that provides a simple and accessible alternative to anyone interested in a physical activity that has minimal impact on nature.”*
Being stagnant is not natural. The lives we currently live are extremely sedentary and unhealthy. To become healthy we as a species need to embrace our bodies for their potential and bring our talents out from hiding.
Evolutionary (Trusting Our Primal Heritage): “The evolutionary philosophy of MovNat makes us understand how important it is to trust this universal and primal heritage.”*
Humans were not created yesterday, we have a long heritage and have been on this earth for over 200,000 years. That being said, our bodies and minds were designed for a different era, an era where we needed to move to survive. We needed to be able to hunt for our lives, run for our lives, swim for our live, climb for our lives, lift heavy objects for our lives, jump for our lives, throw for our lives and simply MOVE for our lives. Our bodies still have this engrained in them and need to be utilized. These things haven’t changed.
Situational (Satisfying Real World Demands): “MovNat trains you to become a well-rounded natural athlete, ready for a wide range of practical actions in various kinds of situations.” *
Does it make sense to be able to lift double your bodyweight and not be able to run 3 miles? Does it make sense to be able to run a marathon but not be able to lift 25 lbs? Of course not, but it happens all the time. You need to be able to survive any situation life throws at us. You need to train your entire body and be ready to live life.
To summarize, MovNat is taking being from their unhealthy sedentary lifestyles and helping them become a true athlete, a true human, through education and practice. Please, go visit Erwan LeCorre at his website www. movnat.com and sign up for a 1-day seminar. This will be one of the best decisions you ever make.
I’m not really a practicing Catholic, but I still try to uphold the traditions of lent. This year I am going to give up wearing shoes. There are going to be some stipulations to this. I am required to wear proper footwear at work so at least one day a week I will have to wear shoes. I also snowboard so I will be wearing my boots for that. So, that’s what I’m giving up. What are you giving up? Leave a comment!
I found this video about life in Alaska back in the 1940’s. It’s pretty cool because these people are still living a hunter-gatherer (well, mostly hunter) lifestyle. It’s very interesting to see how these people lived, hunted, and thrived in such a challenging environment. My favorite part is the emphasis on fat in their diets.
All I’m saying is everyone should take a good hard look at how they are living their life. Are you happy with what you have become? Not your career…YOU. Are you happy with the body you have? Are you happy with diseases such as Diabetes, all Mental/Nervous disorders? Americans have been getting sicker and sicker and bigger and bigger every year. What if, instead of doing the same things year after year we go back to the original. Let’s get off our asses and DO SOMETHING! Let’s eat the way our ancestors did before the advent of farming. Let’s MOVE like our lives depend on it, because it does. Believe me, it does. I’m not saying that your nutritionist and your personal trainer are wrong…wait, maybe I am saying just that! How does milk benefit me? Calcium? I can get that from my veggies thanks. And when it comes to working out why should we isolate muscles to work them? Is our body designed to work only one muscle at a time or as one machine? How will having really big biceps help me run? How will a treadmill help me carry my friend 10 miles out of the woods when they break their leg? People just need to rethink their lives. Try to get better, not to be different, just a better you.
I apologize for the rant, I just get so frustrated when I see commercials for finding a cure to some disease when we already have one that works…The paleo diet. So many things can be cured by eating differently and breaking away from the Zoo Human. Our society puts too much effort into helping symptoms not prevention. Some days I feel like I should just run away and live on my own, in the wilderness and too just be me without worrying about society and what shirt to wear to work tomorrow. All the trivial nonsense is getting to me more and more as I journey toward a better me.
Good luck to you all. I hope you find yourself before it is too late…
I am way over due for a new post. I have been extremely busy these last 3 weeks. Wow…It’s been almost a month since my last post.
The Paleo challenge I have set for myself has had it’s ups and downs, but for the most part it has been a very Paleo diet. I must say that I enjoy eating Paleo and living this lifestyle. That is the main thing I have learned in the last month of doing this challenge. It has also driven me to dislike winter. Not hate it, just dislike it. If I didn’t have a snowboarding pass I would be chomping at the bit for spring to come. I miss being outside barefoot all the time, wearing shorts and just enjoying nature. I still enjoy nature, but it’s not the same.
Nicky and I went camping a month ago. Not cabin camping, not tent camping, TARP camping. We took a big blue tarp that we bought at Home Depot, some cooking supplies and some wood cutting supplies and we set out. We went to Phillips Creek in Allegany County NY. It’s a nice little area designed for hiking, snowshoeing and horseback riding. We didn’t want to walk far in case something happened and we needed to get back to the truck but we wanted to be far enough in that we couldn’t see the road. We ended up walking roughly 200 yards down the trail and went about 200 feet into the woods and began to set up camp.
The first thing we did was find an area that was large enough to accommodate the TeePee we planned on building. After we found a suitable area it was time to look for some sturdy poles. We lucked out. The area we chose had plenty of down trees that were just the right size for what we needed. We used a saw to cut 5 nice poles and then lashed 3 together and set the other 2 in place. After wrapping the tarp around the poles and staking it all down we found that we had a pretty nice living space.
The original plan was to have the fire inside the teepee with us but we found that it would be a little too crowded for our safety.
We placed our fire outside and had some nice meals, relaxed and enjoyed the company of some friends who stopped by to see us.
Overall I had a very nice day being away from civilization for a while. Being away from the hustle and bustle for a while can really relax you.
With it being winter the sun set early (around 5:00) and that meant that it was time for us to go to bed. We had set down more tarps to keep us dry inside the teepee. On these tarps we placed a blanket down then we had our sleeping bags with another blanket for extra warmth. Nicky was smart and purchased a bunch of hand/body warmers. We placed these inside the sleeping bags with us to keep us warm. They really worked out well. At one point I was actually too hot in the 5*F weather. Going to bathroom in the middle of the night is hard though. Getting out of the warm sleeping bag and stepping out into the cold night is a shock to the system. But it was all right. Falling back to sleep was no problem. But staying asleep was hard for me…
Around 4:30 am I started to hear the tree branches in the forest start to creak and crack under the bitter cold. It was frightening to hear large branches slamming into the ground nearby. After about an hour of this I heard the beeping of a truck backing up. I was afraid that it was a tow truck taking away my dads pickup. I decided to wake Nicky up and head out to the truck to warm up and await the sunrise. She was reluctant to say the least but I didn’t want to wait and find that our truck was gone or find a tree branch in the teepee with us. It turns out that it was just a snowplow turning around in an intersection nearby and we waited for morning in the truck.
When it was light enough to see without the aid of flashlights we went back to tear down camp and head home. After we loaded everything into the truck we met my parents at a nearby restaurant for breakfast. We ate like champions that morning. After conquering the great outdoors for a night in the middle of winter you are a champion. But a tired champion at that. When we got back to the great city of Buffalo we passed out…hard. For about another 3 hours. It is very physically draining being out in the cold. You don’t realize how much energy you burn just staying warm.
Overall it was an amazing experience and I would love to do it again. Being outside is essential to happiness no matter what season it may be.
photo from the NYSDEC website.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this extra long post today and I hope you try this sometime. Leave a comment if you have ever gone camping in the winter, or if you haven’t, what is the craziest thing you have ever done in the winter.
I’m sorry for not posting in a while. With winter camping all weekend and snowboarding all last night I haven’t had the time. But! I have invented a caveman cake and possibly even shake and bake so watch for those posts!
It’s winter. It’s cold. I’m going camping. Today when Nicky gets out of work we are heading down to near the PA border and doing some fun winter camping. Of course we are not camping tonight at is it already getting dark and we have a 2 hour drive. We will be staying at my Parents house tonight and departing in the morning. Please check back for an update. Hopefully we will have some video of this trip!
Safe travels,
Shoeless (who will be wearing boots for this trip) Joe
Today I turn 25, the last achievement age. 25 is how old you must be to rent a car. After this…the only thing you can do is gain more Experience Points. What a game life is. Well, I am going to try to be as paleo as possible today and Nicky was supposed to make some paleo deserts but didn’t get around to it. We will just have to do without. The plan for the celebration is a nice night of bowling! AND… we are planning on a camping trip this weekend. It’s going to be cold and hopefully fun. Watch for a post about it next week.
I regret to inform you that I have fallen victim to the evils of holiday traditions. Yes, I failed to go completely paleo this holiday season. It is hard to not eat what a little old Irish Grandmother tells you to eat. She is a sweet lady, I couldn’t make her upset. But! This is a new year and there are a lot of people how have committed to eating paleo for the month of January. Check out hunter-gatherer.com John Durant is going to be doing this as well.
So after falling extremely short of my 6 month goal, I will push forward again and go until July of this year. I hope to be announcing something very big in February that the Paleo Diet will help me with. But this is a secret!
So please, if you have any words of encouragement they would be very VERY helpful. This is going to be tough, but with the holidays done this should be much easier!
I went to Chipotle today. (Nothing new there) There was a couple in front of me who looked like they have never been in one before. Normally I would get a little antsy about the line not moving…AT ALL. But instead of cutting in the sign lookers I waited patiently. They even offered me to go first, but I didn’t want to be a jerk so I waited. When they were trying to pay for their order the system went down and they got their food for free. FREE CHIPTOLE! I was thinking, ‘Hell Yeah! Free food!’ but when I got to the cash register I asked if they could try one more time. I didn’t want to feel like I stole from them. They tried again but it was still down. So I took my free Chipotle salad and sat down to eat. When I was done eating I walked up to the register and asked if they had it up and running again. They said it was so I offered to pay for my food. I could have gotten away with free food, but it’s not in my nature. If I go somewhere for food that I intend to purchase I can’t just take it. To me that feels like stealing.
So the lesson today: Be Trustworthy. You’ll feel better about it later.
It was sunny and close to 70 degrees today, so Joe and I decided we couldn’t pass up a Movnat adventure in Glenn Park. You wouldn’t know you were in the middle of busy Williamsville, NY. Trees tower overhead with the orange and red leaves changing all around us. Water trickles down a stream. I feel peaceful and relaxed. This is where I am meant to be.
We spent the afternoon climbing trees, jumping, and balancing on logs. We even managed to get a bit of grappling in there.
I found an incredible video on tree climbing today (barefoot, of course!). Natural movement at it’s finest. Here’s the link:
photo from the NYSDEC website.
Mark it a ZERO!!!!
Barefoot Buffalo 