You got through your gift list, wrapped all the presents and got them distributed to your friends and family.

Now, it's time to give a few gifts for the new year to the person you see the most - yourself.

Call it "me time," and don't do it for anybody else.

• Give your body and mind the gift of actually understanding this fitness game.

For too long we've read and listened to what fitness folks have to say about what's good for us. There's everything from the latest fat-loss supplement to the newest "amazing" body-sculpting machine.

Advertisers will tell us to do it because it works. Then they give us some not-fully-explained-or-understandable reason why it works. And we buy into it because the people in the ads look so darn good!

So find out what it is you want to do and why you want to do it. What are your motives?

Are you telling yourself the truth? Is it really about being a better basketball player? Or is it about just looking better? The sooner you find out, the better off you are.

• Give yourself the gift of kindness. We're far too hard on our minds and bodies when it comes to exercise.

Self-observation tends to over- or understate. So let's stop beating up ourselves over our aesthetics. If we spent as much time planning our fitness programs as we do worrying about our looks, we'd probably look the way we want.

I'm not naïve. I understand everything is often so easy in the beginning. Our strength increases, seemingly exponentially. Increases in lean body muscle help burn the fat weight. The clothes fit more and more loosely. Compliments saturate our days.

Then a few weeks, or maybe a couple months, into the program, everything seems to stop. What once was easy becomes hard. The fun changes to tediousness. We reach a plateau that we can't cross.

It's here, when things appear to be their worst, that we have to remember to congratulate our bodies for making it this far. Refuse to look at it as a stopping point, and understand it's another beginning.

• I swiped this last one from a column I did a few years ago, but it's as important now as it was then: Give yourself the gift of no more comparisons. In other words, stop comparing your body with everybody else's. You're not going to be them, and that's just fine!

The best any of us can and should do is try to be better today than we were yesterday. If you struggled on the last three dumbbell press reps, you shouldn't add 20 pounds per dumbbell the next time just because Jane Doe did. You should try to do the entire set without struggling. Move up in intensity after mastering that.

Become a stronger, leaner, faster you. Forget about everybody else, and impress yourself with self-progress.

Happy New Year!

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Bryant is a former Gazette reporter now living in San Diego. He holds training certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, USA Weightlifting and the Titleist Performance Institute. Reach him through the "contact" link at www.nobullfit.com.