Personal Growth Planet Blog

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

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.*

By Amy Phillips-Gary

Are you a dieter?

You might be on, or have tried, the Atkins or South Beach diets or perhaps The Zone, Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig programs. There seem to be a plethora of choices when it comes to diet plans.

Not everyone is on a weight-loss diet, though many of us are.

According to a CBS news story, around 45 million Americans diet each year. About $1-$2 billion is spent on weight-loss programs annually in the U.S.

Those numbers indicate that a lot of people are dissatisfied with their bodies!