Pocket Sakura

27 April 2025

Pocket Sakura: How I Love It And Use It To Motivate Myself + Better My Health

The following was written back in 2024 on another website. I'm editing it a bit to spruce it up. There is an update with new things below all this!

Let's start with some backstory! My health has been pretty bad lately. I have an auto immune disease that causes me pain to where I can't walk some days. Due to this massive change in my life since about two years ago, I've lost a lot of my stamina. It got so bad, I could barely keep up with my chores in my place sometimes. The pain would be so bad I would just lay in bed most of the day.

I have started to have more days where I can be somewhat normal in my day to day however! I still get flare ups in pain, but I can handle it now that I'm more used to it. The problem is my stamina is still really bad. I get out of breath within 5 minutes of doing anything.

Then a friend of mine posted this amazing blog post. In it, there is a section where he talks about his body image and how he just started walking back in 2018. He has done it for six years now, and can do 6 miles a day! It kicked something in my brain and motivated me to do the same. I'll explain more below and why I'm writing this now.

Back in January 2024, a friend surprised me with a package for my birthday. In it was a Pocket Sakura he had found while out and about. He knew I loved Sakura Wars and grabbed it for me. I was so excited to have it, not just to add to my little collection of Sakura Wars things, but I wanted to use it! 

Now I've done some occasional walks since getting my Pocket Sakura. But they were short walks and during a time where I wasn't moving much anyway. Walks for me were just a way to get outside for a few minutes.

Starting a few months ago, before my friend wrote his blog post, I decided to take my walking more seriously. I miss my stamina and I want it back! Without telling anyone, I started taking very short walks. Everyday I could. I was measuring maybe 500 steps at max. Not much, but my goal was to get to where I could get up to 1000 steps without feeling like my legs were on fire.

But when I did reach my first 1000 steps, I posted this picture from it:

This was from March 12th, 2024. I was so excited. I reached my first goal! I thought that would be my start to getting back my stamina and I was feeling like I took my life back. Then my auto immune disease decided that I should go to hell and die and gave me the worst pain I have ever felt. And it lasted for months. I would get maybe two days a week where I felt normal enough to where I would try to get out and walk, but I was back down to 500 or under steps.

My motivation died. I gave up. Then my friend posts that blog post. I read it, and I will be honest, it filled me so much anger. He was able to do what he wanted to better himself, but my body wouldn't let me. I hated my own body even more. I sat on that anger, and thought about it more and more.

I messaged him sometime later. Essentially I told him that his post had lit a fire inside me and it inspired me to try again. That's exactly what I did. I started the small walks again. I wanted to get back up to over 1000 steps. That goal took me two weeks to reach. Then I decided to post on bluesky that I walked 1248 steps on July 24, 2024. For some reason, people liked it!

It motivated me to do it again. Two days later I hit 1712 steps. I kept doing it everyday, averaging between 1500 and 1800 steps. There was a slight setback however, where I had to stop walking for a few days to let my legs heal. I started walking again at the best time: extreme heat. That caused me to catch a heat rash, which isn't too awful, but that triggered my stupid auto immune disease yet again. I was mad but I let myself heal up.

Flash forward to this week, I hit 1732 steps. Next day, 1757 steps. I noticed that I wasn't having as much leg pain as I normally would. I'm happy at this point but I'm also skeptical about pushing myself more. What if my pain came back? Well, I woke up the next day, and I finally hit the goal I've been wanting to achieve! I finally went over 2000 steps.

2954 STEPS! You have no idea how excited I was to hit this. I was so close to my next goal, hit 3000 steps, but I broke 2000 and I was feeling okay! I woke up the next day really sore because my legs were mad but I didn't care. I finally did it. I have real proof I'm improving!

Then yesterday hits. I'm sore but I go out and walk again. As I start walking, the soreness starts to either go away or I just get used to it. I didn't really care but I was determined to pass 3000 steps.

I came back home, sat down at my desk chair, and pushed the button that turns on the screen for Pocket Sakura and I nearly cried. I did it.

3014 steps. It was barely over my goal but I did it. This guy, who months ago couldn't walk 500 steps without feeling like his body was going to explode, just hit 3000+ steps. I'm fucking doing it. I'm taking back control of my body and I'm getting my stamina back.

Today I posted 3059 steps. I will eventually get to 4000. I want to get there before winter. Winter will also pose a problem of, well, it gets really cold and it's not safe to be out in that for very long. That's a problem for future me however!

I should also add I have been keeping track with my phone of the steps I take. Pocket Sakura has been pretty accurate, coming within 10-20 steps less then what my phone says. I figured it's pretty safe to use the number Pocket Sakura shows to get a good idea of how far I am walking.

Doing this has given me something new to do. I enjoy going outside now. I even look forward to doing a walk now! That's something I haven't felt in over a decade. I will never be athletic or "in shape" but I'm just so damn happy to be able to have something that is motivating me everyday. I needed that badly.

THE 2025 UPDATE

Crazy at how time flies. Winter hit, and it was harder for me to get out and go on walks. I stayed active as best I could and I kept up my stamina atleast. Towards the end of winter, my health was taking a turn for the worst again. I was gaining weight at a rapid pace even with staying active. My pain was only getting worse. I went to a few doctors, and eventually we found a way for me to tolerate my pain. But the weight was still an issue. So a few months ago I decided to go see a specialist for more help.

During a lot of blood work and testing for other things that may be wrong with me, we did find something I never expected. My body can't absorb Vitamin D like it should. When my levels were measured, it showed that my Vitamin D levels were dangerously low, almost to the point where it could cause life threatening issues. My doctor even said she had never seen anyone be that low before. I'm what you call a trend setter! So getting on Vitamin D medicine was the first thing to fix. And since I started taking these massive pills once a week, I have more energy like a normal human should for the first time in years. 

But that's not the only problem that was found. Turns out I'm in the very low early stages of being Prediabetic. Now that caught me off guard. I've been dieting for years at this point. I avoid anything with sugar, eat healthy, and stick to unprocessed foods as much as possible. I wasn't perfect, but who the hell is. My doctor figured it had something to do with my body not processing carbs like it should and so now I'm limited to 50 carbs a day and I started new medicine. I got pills and I get to do weekly injections now. Even that turned into an issue however.

My body started rejecting the pills and violently. I had stomach cramps that would cause me to nearly fall over while I was standing up. It also made my intestines horribly sore, made my kidneys hurt, and I was throwing up so much. After I got in contact with my doctor, I was told to stop taking the pills and just use the injections. It's been about a week since then and I'm feeling better. I'm still having some issues but they are slowly going away.

Before all this happened, I started walking again. At first it was slow going getting my stamina back up to where I wanted it but it didn't take as long this time. But remember how I said I would eventually get to 4000 steps before winter? That didn't happen but this spring, I killed it.

4704 steps! I demolished my goal and got so close to my next one, 5000 steps, all within a couple of weeks of starting walking again. I was so happy. And then my health issues kicked my ass again and I haven't been able to get out and walk for long. I still go out but I can't make it very far due to my pain. Eventually I will get over this and get back to breaking the 5000 step goal.

Again, I nearly cried. I don't think text does this any justice, but this has been a struggle. I want to be healthier. I want to be better so I don't have more problems in the future. It seems at every step I take forward my body fights back and wants me to not get better. I nearly lost all my motivation again after this latest setback. I can't thank my friends enough for talking to me when I brought up my issues and just cheering me on. Also I keep posting these updates on my Bluesky, and all the likes and replies really do help. People keep cheering me on without me even asking and I cherish all of it. 

The next step is to get to 5000 steps. I'm not giving up and I'm going to get myself better again so I can push myself even more and get to being healthier. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has helped keep me going. From hanging out with me, to talking to me on social media, to even just sending me a stupid random message on Discord, it's kept me going. Doing this has made my life worth living again and I don't want this feeling to go away.

Thanks for reading this far! If you want to see more posts about me walking and using the Pocket Sakura, you can check me out on Bluesky! I'm trying to explore and get more things to show up with it and find it fun to post about. Also thank you to this guide by BOBdotEXE! It's a very helpful document explaining how Pocket Sakura works and if you are interested in that, check it out!

Love you all~*~**~