Personal Growth Planet Blog

5 or 6 years ago, in response to the words of my doctor and results of a cholesterol test, I lost around 25 pounds over the course of several months. I began to exercise, I cut out sugary, processed foods and ate more vegetables and whole foods– all great things to do for my overall health. I was also able to lower my cholesterol levels so that they were all in the healthy range.

It felt great…except that it didn’t.

Yes, I was happy that my body was slimmer and more fit. Yes, I was delighted that I lowered my cholesterol without the use of prescription drugs.

What are your New Year’s resolutions this year?

If you’re like many people, you’ve been giving some thought to the improvements to your relationships, body, health, finances, career and life you’d like to make in the coming year.

Though everyone’s resolutions are unique and personal, I believe that they often come to down to one word…

Freedom.

After all, a desire to earn more money, buy a new car, get a promotion and travel to exotic places all involve a sense of financial freedom.

Having survived the daylight savings time change, we are treated this weekend to the unveiling of a new season– the delightful Spring.

For me, the Spring Equinox is a refreshing and promising day. It truly marks the season for renewal and rebirth. I can’t help but apply all of those great things to personal growth.

We all have habits or aspects of our lives that we’d like to change. Perhaps we eat too much when we’re stressed out, rely on alcohol, drugs or cigarettes to cope with life, zone out on the computer or tv or any other behavior which we deem unwanted or unhealthy.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

In the previous blog post, I talked about those “oops” moments– when you’ve set diet or fitness goals for yourself only to discover somewhere down the road that you’ve veered quite far from the course you intended.

Sometimes we are very aware of the splurge we are having or the “vacation” from the gym we are taking. Other times, we simply get so caught up in life we don’t realize that we’re eating and moving (or not) in ways that we’d supposedly sworn off for good.

It happens.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

So maybe you set some diet and fitness resolutions for yourself at the beginning of the year. And maybe in the first few weeks of January you stuck with them and possibly even saw some positive results.

But now it’s almost a month and half later, and it’s likely that you’ve encountered some “oops” moments– or maybe more than just a few.

At our family Superbowl party last night, for example, I realized that I was eating Fritos, cookies and chocolate-covered almonds without giving any of it much thought. I wasn’t even hungry, but these treats are party food and tasted great.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

It’s difficult not to notice the countless ads for various diet plans and products lately.

Of course, this is to be expected. Shedding pounds is, by far, one of the most popular resolutions that people here in the U.S. set for themselves after the December holidays.

As you might have experienced, after intending that this is the year we will drop a clothing size or two, people often become distracted, overwhelmed, disenchanted, or frustrated in some way and our bathroom scales seem to indicate that we’ve failed to meet our weight loss goals…again.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

As I hang up my brand-new calendar for 2010 and prepare to welcome in a fresh decade, I can’t help but think about what I want to do differently in the coming year.

Yes, I’m thinking about New Year’s resolutions.

You might be doing the same thing. Many of us greet the new year with hopeful and ambitious lists of undesirable habits we’re finally going to kick and the new, healthier ones we’re going to adopt instead.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

Losing weight and exercising more are two resolutions that just about everybody includes on his or her list of self improvements to make.

And just about everyone (with exceptions of course) somewhere along the line falls short of those goals. Those aspirations usually get swept aside and forgotten– or used as a rationale for self-criticism and beating up on one’s self.

If you’d like to upgrade yourself by making improvements in the ways you eat and/or your physical fitness, setting yourself up to succeed is a vital first step.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

The organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is notorious for making their message known in an in-your-face and difficult to forget way.

I’m usually all in favor of guerilla theater, nonviolent resistance and other forms of getting the word out about particular causes in creative and colorful ways.

But I’m never in favor of shaming and degradation.

Recently, PETA put up a new billboard in Florida with the words “Save the Whales” in bright pink letters.*