Participant #1:
Hello, cupcake, it's me. A podcast with your host, Michael Peterson. Hey, everyone. Michael here with hello, Cupcake. It's me. A podcast. This is episode 39. Day is August 26, 2022. And how are you? Yeah, if you haven't done so already, please hit like and subscribe and head on over to the YouTube channel, YouTube. Comholocupcake. It's me like and subscribe over there and go on over to the blog. Hellocupcakeetsme.com. Give some love there. So it's been kind of an emotional week. Everything has just been really tugging at my heartstrings and making me cry and just like fill all the fillings right now. I followed this influencer or whatever you want to call her. Her name is Mama Tat, but her actual name is Affiliate Nichols. And she's just this beautiful light in a world of otherwise darkness. And she's just so beautiful, so pure, so just like majestic in her spirit that you just really don't want anything bad to ever happen to her. And if you know who I'm talking about, then you know the tragic story that just recently happened. Her youngest child was murdered about a month and a half, two months ago. And today, just about 21 minutes ago, she posted a video of her sitting graveside of her baby child, as she calls him, and just trying to be a positive light and be beautiful. And she had me, like, just crying and yeah, stuff like that right now has really been weighing heavily on my heart. Just like everything is making me cry. And I don't know if it's because we're in the process of transitioning into our winter months here in the PNW, but yeah, I don't know. And I know that there are some events coming up soon that are going to be rather emotional. Also. Like, my dad's birthday is coming up on September 6. The biological egg donors, hers is coming up on the 17th and stuff like that. And also just getting ready to go into the holiday seasons, being financially strapped like I normally am and starting to worry already about the holidays and what I'm going to get who and how I'm going to afford it and so on and so forth and just kind of like going from there. So, yeah, just really been in my fields lately. But on a side note or in other news or whatever you want to call it, I started feeding a stray cat. And this cat is so just precious looking and it looks like it's young. If it's two years old, I'd be amongst it looks like it's somewhere between six months and a year and a half. And I think it was my neighbors across the street that they let it out when they were moving. And I'm so pissed off about it, just the fact that if it is there, fuck them for doing that. I will never, ever understand somebody taking on an animal and then just throwing it out the door or leaving it behind when they move or whatever because they can't take it with them. That's not an option. You wouldn't just throw your kids out the door and say, oh, I'm moving into a one bedroom apartment because I can't afford a three bedroom apartment anymore.

Participant #1:
And there's a lot of people that are going to be like, well, animals aren't the same as humans and blah, blah, blah, blah. But you know what? They kind of are. Like, you take on this animal, you raise it up many times from a puppy or a kitten or from whatever infancy you get it at, and then it becomes a part of your family and then you do what you love on it. But the second things become a little too hard for you, you just open the door and kick it out and let it fed for itself and hope that it can fend for itself, especially in a wooded area like where I live, where there's hawks and there's eagles and there are lion, cougar, mountain lion and cougars and bear and all kinds of other shit. That's not fair. That's disgusting. And in my opinion, almost right up there like an unforgivable sin. I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to eventually get it tame enough to where I can interact with it and maybe even eventually adopt it and bring it into the house and get it all cleaned up and stuff like that. Even though I'm on SSDI and I already have my one cat. I would find a way to make it so that I could have both of the cats. Just give this cat a home that it can call its own or even like maybe live trap it and get it to the Humane Society or to another local organization so where they could rehabilitate the poor creature and get it into a loving home.

Participant #1:
I saw it out there looking at the food dish that I had out there and it was empty. So I ran out there real fast and I was like, hey kitty, kitty, kitty, put some food out for it. So keeping fingers crossed that I am able to continue to do this and that with time the animal will get to know my scent and get to trust me and will eventually let me, like I said, adopt it. And even if it's my outdoor kitty, that's fine. I have a little covered porch and I'll set up a whole little place for it and I'll put food and water out there and I'm really worried with the winter months coming up, like how it's going to affect the cat. So I might just have to do some kind of outdoor cat house for it. Also, in somewhat good news, I have started walking again. If you are new to the podcast and new to my content in general, a few years ago I was walking and it started in March 2020, actually. Is when I started walking. And at the time I was ready. I was like, yes, let's do this. Fuck being overweight, you got to do this. And I started doing really well, guys. I was by June of that year. So from March to June, march 20 to June, I made my first walk at £480. And I did 7 miles. Well, seven and a half to 14 miles. It was something like that. My pedometer said that I had walked 13.5 miles, and my GPS said I walked 7.5. So I don't know how far it was. All I know is it's the furthest I have ever walked. And that was really emotional and really spiritual and just really fucking wow. Like you did that. I wasn't able to move or really walk for a few days afterwards because I was that sore and that much in pain. But it was awesome. I called a girlfriend of mine up, a really close friend of mine, and I'm like, hey, I'm out walking right now. I'm pretty much at the point of no return. If I go much further than where I am at now, if I continue on this walk and just push myself as far as I can go, will you come and pick me up? She's all, yeah, are you going to be okay? And I said, I think I'm going to be okay. It's just like if I turn around and walk back now, it's going to be 6 miles, and I don't know if I can make it all the way back home or back to where my car is parked. So if you will at least come and pick me up, like, wherever I get to the end of and then drive me back to my car, it would be greatly appreciated. So she's like, okay, cool. Not a problem. Let's do this. I'm like, Cool. I wasn't walking fast. I was just walking a real slow kind of slow, but steady pace. And like an hour or two had gone by and she had called me and she's like, Where are you? Are you okay? And I said, yeah, I'm okay. And at the time, I didn't know the trails all that well, but I kind of guesstimated about where I was. And I told her and I said, I'm still going pretty strong. I'm going to try to just bust out the rest of this trail. I think I only have, like, four more miles to go. And at that point it was about 4 miles to the end of the trail, so I wasn't too far off, but I had just walked up, like, this really huge, steep hill, and I was out of breath. And that day was super freaking hot outside. And there was several wildfires over in Canada that were causing the air quality to be zero, basically over here. I took no water with me. I had no food with me. Completely unprepared for this level. Of walk, but something in my spirit just kept telling me, go do this. You got this. And then once I started realizing where I was, I was like, oh, I'm only like so far from this point. OK, well, let's at least watch to that point. And if I can't do it any further, then call her. From there, I got to that point. Oh, shit. Well, I'm only like so far from this point. Let's keep going. When you get to that point, if you can't do it, call her. And so that's what I did once I started recognizing where I was. And by the time it was all said and done, I was at the end of the final mile and a half. I started crying and just talking to the universe and putting it all out there like, wow, this is a huge freaking accomplishment. And once I got to the half mile mark, I called my friend and I said, listen, I'm still a half a mile from where I need you to pick me up. So I'm moving kind of slow right now because I'm really hurt and my legs and everything from my lower back down is numb and in pain. I said, so by the time I make it this half a mile, you should be here. And she's like, okay, bet I'll be there. And there was a small part of me that when I got to the end of the end of that trail that wanted to continue walking the other, like quarter of a mile and end at the ferry terminal. And then there was even a part of my diluted brain that was like, you know what, why don't you just walk to the end of the peninsula or the end of the road, which from where I finished the trail to the end, it's probably about maybe 2 miles, give or take. So I was like, no, she's going to be here. She's not going to want to wait around for you to walk. She's not going to want to do all that other stuff. And I saw a place to go and sit, and I just barely made it to there and sat down. And she came around the corner and I was just like I couldn't keep from crying. It was a happy cry. It was a cry of accomplishment. It was a cry because I was in pain and all this other stuff. And she's like, oh my god, you are so awesome, and just gave me all this praise and stuff. Yeah, I'm trying to get back to that. I want to be able to walk and not be in pain. I want to be able to lose the weight that I put on over the last two years after getting my kidney stone, which caused me to stop. I was down with that kidney stone for probably, I would say maybe four weeks because I was walking the whole week prior to being officially diagnosed with kidney pain. I was having really bad kidney pain at the time, and I was just walking through it thinking that it was part of my everyday aches and pains and I wasn't getting enough water. So the very first thing that I was doing is I was drinking a lot of water and I was drinking a lot of cranberry juice, trying to flush my kidneys out or whatever. And I was also, at the time, eating a lot of yogurt, like £2 of yogurt a day was one of my meals. And just having that much calcium, plus the fact that I was drinking a gallon to two gallons of water a day with apple cider vinegar in it and just all day long drinking water, drinking water, drinking water and filtering that much calcium through my system, I gave myself the kidney stone. And so that's what I'm doing now is I'm doing my little walk every morning. Right now, I'm only able to walk around a parking lot. And it's a decent size parking lot. Nothing the size of like Walmart or whatever, but maybe the size of a library parking lot or something like that. But I'm walking around that once a day, and I do that as soon as I wake up in the morning. And I just get up and I go. By the time I get back to my car, my legs feel like they're going to fall off and my lower back is in tremendous amounts of pain. I know it's just the repetition and getting back into following the dopamine and all that other stuff, but yeah, it's been difficult. The most difficult aspect of all this right now has just been the drinking of the water. So I have a 73 ounce water bottle and I have a 50 ounce water bottle. And then I have a couple of plastic water bottles that are once 33, once 20 ounce. And I think I have a 16 or eight ounce water bottle. But what I do is in the morning I wake up, I go and do my walk, I come home and then I make my bottle of water and I fill up that 73 ounce bottle of water and I add several capsules or tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the water. And then I put in a little bit of pink Himalayan salt for that electrolyte kind of taste. And then I add in sugar free grape koolaid to cut down the taste. And you're probably thinking vinegar and grape koolaid. Yuck. But honestly guys, it's like a really kind of sour grape flavor and it's really good. I drink that 73 ounce bottle of water and then whatever other water or liquid that I could consume throughout that day. And I'm following up on this mobile app called Water Time, and it's by Mobile Creatures, I think is the creator of it. Every hour or so, it dings and tells me drink water and then asks me how much water I've drank, if I've drank 812 or 20oz of water. And then I just go ahead and I mark off which one I've done, and then it adds it all up for my total for the day. And then if I've drank too much water in the day, it will give me like a little, hey, you're doing too much there, buddy. And then I'm also using a calorie counter that is kind of like my fitness pal, but with this calorie counter. It has all the same features as my fitness pal. I used to use MyFitnessPal all exclusively because they were such an amazing program, but when Under Armor bought it and then started charging for it, it was like, oh no, fuck you, I'm not going to do this anymore. So I can't remember what the name of the app is right off hand, but I can scan the food that I'm eating and it will automatically bring up the caloric intake and all that other stuff of it. And that goes against like I get 25,000 calories a day to work with, give or take. And so like say last night I had homemade burritos, which was just ground beef, black beans, corn and onion with a little bit of sour cream and cheese. And so I put in how much each one of those things were. So, like, I type in the great value black beans. And great value is a Walmart brand. So it says, okay, well, Great value for their beans is this amount or whatever, how many ounces grams or cups did you have? And I'll put in the number of cups and so on and so forth. Anyways, and then you could always just scan the barcode using your phone and it will automatically input all the information and it's got a huge database. So afterwards I track what I eat throughout the day and then I add my exercise to it and then that gives me what my calorie consumption is. And if I'm under that, then it gives me a total of like if I continue to eat this way in X number of weeks, I'll weigh this much or that I should weigh that much. Got a couple of little tools that I play with and that I'm using. I would really love to have the unlocked version of that calorie counter and the unlocked version of my Pedometer and my water app. So that way I could tie in Google Fit and Fitbit and all that other stuff and then have it cohesively integrated into one area so that I could get everything counted. Because I wear my Fitbit twenty four seven, and it's like one of the old Fitbits. It's the Fitbit Charge two or something like that.

Participant #1:
So I wear that all the time. And I actually want to upgrade that. I want to upgrade that. Smartwatch. I would really like to get like an Android watch or something like that. My sister wants me to switch over to Apple and she's like, I'll get you an iPhone. And I watch. I'm like, I really don't want to switch to Apple. I like my Android, thank you. But yeah. So just a few things here and there and I definitely got to go get a new pair of shoes and I'm staying with Hoka. I really like Hoca, and I think what I'm going to do is once I get the new parahoka, I'm going to take them to my podiatrist and have him build it up and put in the padding and stuff to help me walk a little bit better because one thing is longer than the other. And I also got to get to a chiropractor, and once I'm able to get to the chiropractor and I get that adjustment done, maybe things will like, straighten themselves out or whatever. But that's what I'm doing right now, just trying to get back to a healthy area for my life and trying to figure stuff out. And there's so much more that I want to talk about. But you know what? We're almost out of time for this episode. So you know what? I'm just going to go ahead and cut it off here. So if you have any questions, comments or concerns, let me know. Like I said at the beginning, please check out the YouTube channel, youtube.com hellocupkeekatsme. Go over to the blog, give the blog some love. Hellocupkeekatsby.com. And if you want to reach out to me, you can do so by leaving me a comment down below or you can shoot me an email, hello Cupcakesme@gmail.com. And I will talk to you all later. Bye, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. You have been listening to Hello Cupcake is Me, a podcast with your host, Michael Peterson. Please make sure to check back often as new episodes are released by weekly. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to send a message to Hello Cupcake, it's Me@gmail.com. And until next time, stay happy, safe, and keep doing the best you can with what you have been given. Bye.