How can I pgrep a bash script without detecting the pgrep itself?

I am trying to write a bash script which, once the user run it, checks if another process is running and show it on screen.

Of course, the script is intended for a different purpose, like sending an email once the script ends satisfactorily, or using a different way to send a message to the user.

The main purpose of this script will be to detect zombie processes which kept running for a certain amount of time and inform to the user to take some actions.

I am trying to check if a php script is running in the command line, so I have tried using this for checking if the script is running:

detector.sh

#!/bin/bash
var=$(pgrep -fl my-php-program.php)
if [ -z "$var" ]
  echo "Not running"
else
  echo "Running!"
fi

The script works, and it shows the contents of the running processes, after which I do some other if...else...fi validations with the $var variable contents to do something.

Nevertheless, if I run the process constantly using:

while true; do bash detector.sh; sleep 1; done;

The script detects itself and sometimes shows some positive false responses.

I have -unsuccessful- tried this to solve it:

var=$(pgrep -fl my-php-program.php | grep -v php)

Is it there another way to get this problem solved?

Thanks in advance.

P.S.: I don't want to solve this problem in PHP. I would appreciate a lot your advice for bash based solutions only.