Bella Reviews: Bloch Lightening Zumba Shoes

Do you call a couple of months ago when I needed some advice about which color I should buy the Bloch Lightening shoes in? I really wanted the Multi, but they’d been out of stock so long on Zappos, that I finally broke down and decided to go with another color? Well, I’m so glad that I did.

I am LOVING the turquoise, yellow, green, and black combo!  They pair nicely with so many of the clothes I workout in, and they have just the right amount of pizzazz for Zumba shoes.

I wanted to try them out both in a class at the gym as well as at home for this review.  I can say that at first they’re really slippery, especially on my bamboo floors at home.  I felt like I was going to slide across the floor a few times that first evening.  They were better at the gym because those hard wood floors aren’t quite as smooth as mine at home.

The sole of the shoe has that unique pivot point near the ball of the foot that makes turns a breeze.  I’ve never been able to move as quickly as I have while wearing these shoes. I still may not be completely graceful (yet!), but I didn’t feel like the shoes were holding me back, as I used to wearing my Ascics or even my Reebok Flex. The right equipment makes all the difference in performance, and these shoes are no exception to that statement. I know I’m going to be a better Zumba participant now that I have the proper shoes.

These shoes are the opposite of clunky sneakers.  I love their lightness; I feel like I could dance all day in these shoes!  I’m not sure how they’d hold up for walking/running, but they’re meant as dance shoes, and that’s what I plan to do when I’m wearing them.  These are the go-to Zumba and U-Jam Fitness shoes, for sure.

I agree with the reviewers on Zappos who said that these shoes run small.  I originally bought the 8 1/2 (I normally wear an 8 in sneakers), but had to go up to a 9 for them to fit comfortably.  Now that I have the 9s though, I can say that these are really comfortable shoes, even with my recent by plantar fasciitis.

The price is great, too.  I picked them up for $66 on Zappos, and I know it’s going to be money well spent, because I’ll get a ton of use out of them.

All in all, I highly recommend these shoes.  I also recommend you buy them in person so you can try them on, or like I did, on Zappos, where you get free shipping both ways.

 

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New Shoes = New Goals

I’m not sure if you guys remember when I had signed up for the San Diego Rock n Roll Half Marathon with Team in Training, but had to withdraw because I was getting terrible numbness in my feet/legs/hips. It was disappointing on a lot of levels – I couldn’t achieve a goal that I’d set for myself, even though I’d fundraised all the money. I felt like I had let a lot of people down, even though everyone understood. I was really concerned about the fact that the simple act of walking was making my feet go numb. It wouldn’t happen if I was walking at a leisurely pace with sandals or other shoes on in the mall, for instance, but it would always happen when I was in “training” mode outside or in the gym. At the time I met with shoe specialists and my doctor, and I had lots of tests from blood work to an ultrasound on my legs. What the found was that I had poor circulation in my legs, and that exercise would help it, but I shouldn’t go for long periods or at too quick a pace.

Since then the numbness has come and gone, but it would always be there when I was wearing “running” shoes. Over the course of the past year when I was walking Lulu, Minnie, and Sofi I discovered that when I wore flat sneakers (like Vans), I never got the numb feeling. I tested this out when I went for walks with my friend ST (we walked for 2 miles), and sure enough with the Vans I didn’t have any numbness. But of course, I can’t really take Zumba, Turbo Kick, and some of the other classes I like in Vans because they don’t let me move quickly enough.

Then I saw lots of people at the gym wearing the Nike Free shoes. I loved the look and I thought that the flat sole would mimic the Vans and allow me to walk numbness-free. The reviews were excellent, and I thought I’d make the investment and give them a try. Anything was better than the New Balance that I’d been wearing. (Some people swear by New Balance, but I’ve tried several different pairs over the years, and they just don’t work well for me). So I went to Footlocker the other day to get the Nike Free shoes, but I discovered that that Nike Free shoes don’t have a separate tongue on the shoe. So you have to slide your foot into them and you don’t have as much wiggle room because the tongue is connected.

For someone like me who has an incredibly high instep, in addition to wide feet, this made it nearly impossible to get them on. I was literally breaking into a sweat to get them on my feet, and my mom told me that I obviously needed to look around because if I couldn’t get them on easily, how realistic was it that I’d wear them. Which was true. I was really disappointed, because I loved the look of the shoes. So when I was looking around at other “free” types of shoes, I happened upon the Reebok Real Flex.

They look just as cute as the Nike Free, and they have a separated tongue. 🙂 Who knew that would make so much of a difference?

Taken in the mirror to give a side view.

I have them on today for the first time, and I can’t wait to use them. Just walking around the house I can say that they’re ultra light and very comfortable. I feel like my feet can breath – they don’t have that “cooped up” feeling that I get with most sneakers.  They don’t have that same “clodhopper” feel that other sneakers can, so I can see myself wearing these out and about a bit more than I normally would.  (I am not really a sneaker wearer.  Yes, I wear them when taking a long walk or when working out, but just in my daily life, not really).  I think these could make an appearance now and then in my regular shoe wardrobe, which is really saying something.

Beyond look and feel, I want to eventually use these shoes (although maybe not this actual pair, since I may go through these) to begin a walk/run program.  The plan in my head is to get to my pre-op goal of 266 lbs and then start with some sort of walk-to-run training program.  C25K works for people who are already fit, but for someone who is still considered obese, I’m thinking that something more along the lines of Brad Gansberg’s 100 day program would be more suitable.  No matter what program I choose, I really do want to eventually get to be a jogger.

All the more reason to get these last 30 pounds off so that I can keep striving for my real life goals.

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