This verse was recommended by a member of my Facebook Group . I really love this verse because it reminds me that no matter how hard my IBS gets, God is watching over me and has a purpose for everything that happens to me. In what ways has God shown you that He is watching over you?

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com 日本語訳は下をご覧ください。 Thank you for all your prayers for my health! My IBS has been getting better as I get a better understanding of what I can and cannot eat. My diet is depressingly bland and lacking in variety, but it’s been keeping my pain to a minimum. As I write this, I’m occasionally still having small flares of pain at random times throughout the day, but it’s not too severe or constant, praise God! Because my IBS pain has lessened, I’ve been able to exercise every day. I also started trying out dictation for writing my fiction, and I’ve been able to walk and dictate. So I’ve been able to work while exercising! That rocks! Please continue to pray for my health! I would like to be able to release more books in the coming months! Lord, thank You for being real and present with us in the midst of troubles. Thank You for how Your presence can help us feel peace in our circumstances. I pray for Your grace over all of us. I pray that we can...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com 日本語訳は下をご覧ください。 Thank you for praying for my health! My IBS was slowly been starting to feel better in July. I am still extremely strict with my diet, but I am also starting to experiment with what foods I can and can’t eat. I have also started a new eating and sleeping schedule, which I have dubbed my “chrono-diet” because I’m trying to take advantage of my circadian rhythm, according to the book Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life (I had borrowed a copy from the library but I enjoyed it so much I went ahead and bought it). I have started waking up at 6 am and exercising first thing, then having breakfast after exercise. I do work until noon, which is  when I eat lunch. I’m supposed to not eat until dinner around 5:30 or 6, but I haven’t been able to break the habit of snacking in the afternoon around 3. When I don’t snack, I get so hungry around 4 that I start eating anything I can see, so I snack in order to curb those cravings. I d...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com 日本語訳は下をご覧ください。 I’ve had bad IBS flare-ups for the past several weeks, even though I’ve been trying to be extra careful about what I eat. It’s forced me to figure out a way to work around my health issues, though, so I guess it wasn’t all bad. However, please continue to pray for my health, so that I can feel better and have enough energy to be able to get a lot of writing done every day! Lord, Thank You for how You have blessed us in so many ways. Thank You for the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus Christ, which washes away all our sins and enables us to walk forward in newness of life and newness of purpose. Please help us to follow Your will for us and spread Your love to other people. Amen How can I pray for you today? Please leave me your prayer requests! Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com 日本語訳は下をご覧ください。 My IBS was better in April, but I accidentally ate something to set it off at the start of May, so I spent about a week in a lot of pain. Before that, I had seasonal allergies bothering me, so I feel like I’ve spent 2 or 3 weeks feeling like roadkill. Please continue to pray for me that my health will improve! I want to be able to finish writing my Regency series and get started on my Hawaii series. Lord, thank You for watching over us no matter what happens to us. Thank You that we can trust that You have everything under Your control. Please help us to feel peace knowing You are taking care of us. Amen How can I pray for you today? Please leave me your prayer requests! Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure to fill out the form again to update me if you sent me a prayer requ...

Thank you all for praying for me! My IBS is getting better, although I’ve had to eliminate more things from my diet. :( It’s so bland now, I was complaining to my mom that I should just eat rice and eggs. The good news is that I’m able to each mochi, and I’m thinking of making some for New Year’s. I actually found an old Regency recipe I had posted before, “Mr. Darcy Would Be Appalled White Soup,” can be easily modified for my IBS diet, so I made that a couple weeks ago. It was very yummy and perfect for our cold weather lately. If any of you know some good gluten-free recipes, please do send them my way! (I’m not actually sensitive to gluten, but I can’t eat wheat because it contains too much fructans, so essentially I have to go gluten-free.) As I’ve been feeling better, I’ve been able to get more and more writing done each day! I’m slowly progressing on Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer . Even though my health has taken a turn for the worse thi...

The following is a mashup from my November Camy Tang newsletter and Camille Elliot newsletter which both went out this past Wednesday, but I thought it might be nice to post it on my blog, too. *** My health this past month has been like a particularly gruesome car wreck. I’ve had IBS flareups and also sinus headaches, sometimes both at once. I had really thought I had finally started to get control over my IBS and the foods that I need to avoid, but I made a few mistakes (didn’t read ingredients lists closely enough). The sinus headaches have been a little more frequent because of the change in weather here in California and the increased rain showers. I’m finally feeling better and continuing work on volume 4 of my Christian Regency Romantic Suspense epic serial novel, Lady Wynwood’s Spies . I started trying to train myself to write via dictation because once I get used to it, it’s supposed to be significantly faster, and it will help ease the workload on my hands and wrists...

I’m happy to announce that my first Contemporary Romance story in 5 years releases today! The Wedding Kimono is one of TWELVE novellas in this massive Christian Contemporary Romance collection. Here’s the back cover description: Weddings for every season and occasion. Adventures, mishaps, and dream destinations—this collection has it all! As our guest of honor, you’re cordially invited on a journey through twelve heartwarming and inspirational novellas that will take you from small-town America to romantic Paris, from the sunny shores of Hawaii to New Zealand. Office romances, friends-to-lovers, second chances, and more await you in these stories full of forgiveness, redemption, laughter, and love. Say “I do” and claim your copy of this limited-time anthology by your favorite USA Today and bestselling Christian romance authors! January Hope by Kari Trumbo Clothing historian Cleo goes on the hunt for an 1880s fashion magazine wedding dress. Discovering it's part of a mu...

(TMI warning) I’ve been offline for most of August and September with really bad IBS problems. I couldn’t figure out what I was eating that was triggering my flareups, and at the time, I also didn’t realize that stress might be also causing some of the IBS problems as opposed to food. I went on a complete elimination diet to try to get the IBS to calm down. About a week later, I started getting terrible sinus headaches, most likely from the smoke from the California wildfires that was blowing into the bay area. I was limited in what I could take to treat the headaches since most medicine made my stomach queasy, thanks to my IBS issues. It took me about 2 weeks before I realized that my headaches were probably worse because, as part of the elimination diet, I had stopped taking my allergy supplements (allergy medicine, as well as butterbur, quercetin and bromelain). I started the supplements up again but it took about a week before my headaches went away. While I’m glad my heada...

I know I blogged about this on my Writing Diary Blog , but I don’t think I blogged about this here. I read a few writing and productivity books, and I’ve been trying to form better daily habits. The problem is that my self-discipline is very bad. As in, embarrassingly bad. One of my goals has been to form a better writing habit. Since I’m a full-time writer, I already write every day, but I think there are things I can do to tweak my schedule so that I can be able to focus better when I write. I tend to get distracted by the thought of things I need to do that day which I haven’t done yet. I don’t know why my brain is like this, but I haven’t been able to break this tendency. So for example, while I’m writing, I’ll suddenly think about the fact that today’s the day when I need to change the bathroom towels, or mop the kitchen floor, or change the bedsheets. It’ll distract me for a few moments before I tell myself I’ll do it later and I need to focus on writing now. Then a few ...

Lately I’ve been having a lot of sleep and exhaustion issues. It all started when I decided to focus on shifting my sleep scheduled to an earlier bedtime (between 10 and 12). I’m not entirely sure why, but when I went to bed early, I ended up sleeping only a few hours (anywhere from 3-5) and then waking up, unable to get back to sleep. I would simply get up since I don’t like lying around in bed like that. Then I’d feel tired during the day and go to bed way too early. But again, I’d only sleep a few hours and get up, this time much too early. There are certain things I like to do first thing when I get up (such as exercise and house chores) and I can’t do those when it’s still dark and husband is still sleeping. The problem with pushing those things off until later is because my self-discipline is very, very bad and I’ll usually end up not doing those things at all if I don’t do them first thing. I also don’t like feeling so exhausted during the day. I don’t know why I can’t ...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com 日本語訳は下をご覧ください。 I’m still having some health issues (IBS, allergies/sinus headaches) but they’re slowly getting better. It helped that I reduced the number of hours I’m working each day so I don’t push myself too hard. The reduced hours make me feel kind of like I’m slacking off, but if it’ll help me keep working and not have a physical or mental melt down, then it’s worth it, and I have to keep reminding myself of that. Lord, thank You for Your abundant grace that enables us to accomplish what You want us to do. Help us to focus our efforts on obeying You and submitting to Your wondrous purpose. Amen How can I pray for you today? Please leave me your prayer requests! Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure to fill out the form again to update me if you sent me a prayer request in the past. I’...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com 日本語訳は下をご覧ください。 I’ve had a really tough time health-wise in December! I had an IBS flare-up and then bad allergies, which caused painful sinus headaches that kept me offline. My health issues made me feel overwhelmed and stressed, and I got hardly any work done in December and the first 2 weeks of January. I finally feel better and have started getting back on track with my writing, but I ask that you please pray for my health so that I can continue to both write and meet my commitments for a multi-author anthology I am participating in. Lord, thank You that no matter what happens to us, it helps us to cling more fervently to You and depend upon You more than ever. Please give us Your strength and peace, and remind us that You are with us. Amen How can I pray for you today? Please leave me your prayer requests! Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep ...

So I discovered yesterday that I might be fighting off a cold or flu or something, probably thanks to the flu shot I had a couple days ago. I wonder if that's why I've been so distracted and unfocused lately? I don't like blaming my health, but I've been struggling with my so many issues lately, why the hooch not? (and yes I realized I just made up a slang phrase and I don't care) When I was younger, I used to get flu shots and I would ALWAYS get sick. So I stopped getting them (I think in college). Actually, now that I think about it, I think I got it a couple times when I was working in biotech research, but again, I always got sick and sometimes when you're doing biology research, you really can't just take a sick day. Sometimes you set up an experiment to go down on a specific day and it's simply not possible to put it off or have someone else to do it. I'm feeling pretty craptastic so it's only kind of reinforcing my thoughts about flu s...

If you’re following my daily writing diary blog , you know that lately I’ve had a TON of health issues, mostly revolving around my IBS, which has made it difficult for me to write regularly, especially once I finished outlining my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series . Apart from the discomfort and pain, I’ve also been struggling with real feelings of guilt and shame because I haven’t been able to be productive at my work for days at a time. I personally think a lot of the health issues might be spiritual warfare since they only popped up so persistently once I was about to start writing volume 2 in the series, but only recently did I realize that the guilt and shame could also be spiritual warfare. If I need to take care of myself, then I need to take care of myself. There’s no point in trying to struggle through and write when I’m not feeling well, because the writing will definitely reflect that. So I’m learning to forgive myself for not being super-productive and efficient. I’m also l...

Yeah, it’s been a while since I last posted but I assure you, I am not dead. :) I decided to jump-start my running again, and since I don’t run consistently if I’m not training for an event, I signed up for the 2017 Honolulu Marathon. It’s going to be harder this time since I’ve gained so much weight since the last time I ran (maybe 10 pounds?) and I have to take care of my ankle, which I sprained at the last marathon in 2010 and it still has a bit of scar tissue. However, I’m going to a chiropractor about that and my ankle seems to be doing well. I’m also armed with KT Tape and Rock Tape, Phiten discs, ankle wrap, and massage cream. Please send a prayer for me that I can be consistent in my training and not get (more) injured. I’m getting The Spinster’s Christmas translated into Japanese! I was able to hire a woman from my church who is a professional translator, and she is doing about a chapter every 2 weeks. Now I have to figure out how to format an ebook in Japanese, with vert...

If you’re fine with how you look, you can skip this post. But I’ve been battling my weight almost my entire life and this year I want to do something about it. I’ve failed so many times and I wanted to figure out what I could do so that I wouldn’t fail this year. One thing I’m doing is blogging my goals to you guys. Nothing is more motivating than a public confession that my bum is the size of Oregon. I used to be okay because my upper body wasn’t really that obviously big, but now I’ve started to squeeze out of my bras like toothpaste out of the tube, which means I can no longer delude myself. I read The One Day Way by Chantel Hobbs, and I have to say, this was a great book to make me change my mindset for weight loss and healthy living. She really delves into the different way you have to think in order to accomplish your health goals and not give up by the end of January. It really has helped me to make better eating choices and to exercise every day. I really needed a book l...

For the past four days, I’ve had a low-grade headache just kind of hovering behind my forehead, but yesterday it exploded into a full-flown migraine. It was awful. My head was pounding too much for me to be able to sleep it off, and my stomach was upset so I couldn’t take any medication. Luckily, I had taken a couple Tylenol and willow bark with some soymilk before my stomach rebelled, so I wasn’t totally without drugs. The only thing I could do was lie in bed with the windows darkened and a cold compress on my head and eyes. However, the pain was too much and I couldn’t sleep, but it was also heartily boring lying in bed in pain, so I put on an audiobook and listened to that in the dark. I went through three cold compresses before the headache died down. Even after I got up, I still had a low-grade headache and my head felt fragile, like glass. I tried doing work and couldn’t--I was in too much pain, and I was afraid that looking at the computer screen was making my headache get w...

I came across this article on Sparkpeople and despite it’s tabloid-type title, it’s a rather intelligent article about ways to get the most bang for your buck (time and effort-wise) when you’re at the gym. What do you think? I admit I don’t do weights very much but the 2-4 tempo and supersets sound interesting.

I found this article on carb cycling . Has anyone done this? I’m not entirely sure how healthy it is to go low carb and then binge.