Footwear is the most important clothing item for senior citizens and baby boomers, at least in terms of our comfort and our health. We may focus on a tailer-made suit or custom-fitted gown for a special occasion, or even shop carefully (and with a fashion consciousness) for our work outfits or our leisure apparel. However, footwear is our only clothing item that impacts the earth's surface, unless our slacks or jeans are way too long.

Our blazers, or our shirts and blouses, need not absorb the small but steady jolts of 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day. This why we must treat the feet, first and foremost, starting with a proper fit for our footwear. Three-quarters of senior citizens and baby boomers, at some point in our lives, will encounter foot pain. For those fortunate among us, foot pain will come and go. For others, foot pain is persistent.

The first thing we can do is to make sure our shoes fit, and guess what? Instead of just dispersing this general advice, we're going to give you a few original tips that may not have crossed your mind:

1. Check your shoe size later in the day, because feet can swell as the day goes on.
2. Check the sizes of both feet. Through the years, one may have become larger or wider than the other.
3. Keep in mind that even on a dress shoe, a lace-up style offers more ability to adjust for better comfort and support.
4. Walk on carpet, not just a hard surface, to determine whether your shoes fit properly. Carpeting provides a different experience than a wood or tile floor.
5. Finally, make sure you can wiggle all of your toes up in those new shoes, not just the big ones.

Look at it this way: If a fellow's pants are hitched too high, he looks like a doofus. If a fellow's shoes don't fit right, he walks like a doofus. The difference in the second scenario is that physical pain and health issues come into play. Don't be a shoe-fit doofus!

SOURCES
http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Aging/2007/7-04-12-PainFree.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/foot-pain/MY00082
http://www.foot-specialist.com/foot-pain.htm

Making sure your shoes fit properly is critical to comfort, good posture and general health. Feeling good is looking good and style should never need to be sacrificed for comfort. For this reason knowing how to determine your proper shoe size in both length and width is important.

Even if you think you already know your proper shoe size, it is important to measure your feet periodically. Our feet grow as we get older and the shoe size you wore in your twenties may no longer be appropriate in your 40s. Additionally, it is important to remember that our feet swell throughout the day, so a more accurate measurement is one taken in the afternoon. Finally, remember to wear the appropriate socks when measuring your feet: women should wear stockings for dress shoes, but wear athletic socks when measuring for sneakers and similar casual shoes. Men should wear dress socks for dress shoes and athletic socks for sporting shoes.

To measure your foot begin by placing your foot on a piece of paper on the floor and tracing around it. Make sure to keep your pencil completely upright at all times while tracing. You may have to tilt your leg forward a bit to trace smoothly around the heel. It is important that you trace both feet. It is common for one foot to be slightly larger than the other (it's usually the non-dominant one; right-handed people usually have a larger left foot) and you shoe size will ultimately be based on the larger foot's measurements.

Once you have your tracing, measure your foot at the longest point. Do not run your ruler on a diagonal. Rather, place it parallel to your tracing and take the measurement that way. To compensate for the width of your pencil, be sure to subtract 1/5th of an inch from the measurement. Compare the length measurement to a shoe size chart (there are dozens available online).

Ascertain the width of your foot in the same fashion, being sure to remember to adjust for the width of your pencil. Shoe width charts are also readily available online. However, choosing the shoe width for your foot can be difficult. Many shoes no longer come in widths designated by letter. Regular and Wide are often all that are available in women's shoes. Regular is usually a B width for women. Women with broader feet may wish to try a Wide when available. Narrow has also commonly replaced A through AAA sizing for women. Men's shoes more commonly use the traditional letter designation for widths. D generally translates to a Regular width in men's shoes, with Narrow and Wide being on either side.

While shoe sizing is consistent within countries, shoe sizes are named differently in different places. Luckily, conversions charts are readily available online. It is also important to remember that different shoes are cut in different ways and not every shoe is right for every foot. When trying on shoes it is important to walk in them to test for comfort and fit.