Hi friends!
Wow, less than two weeks until Christmas. If you are someone who celebrates Christmas and are scrambling to find some reasonably priced gift ideas, I thought I’d share some of my favorite things with you.
Now first, let me just say this is not my wish list (mom, I’m talking to you 
) – these are things I already have, use and love.
Second, let me just say that there are no affiliations here. I’m not endorsing products for any kind of kickback or payment. Again, just things I have, use and love.
For the FOODIES in your life:
1. CITRUS PRESS: this is the coolest thing and it makes using fresh lemon/lime juices in recipes a cinch (or putting fresh lemon juice in your water, like I do every day!). Depending on the brand you can get them for between $5 and $15. I found mine at my grocery store for $4.90. It’s super simple to use and clean. And you end up with a fun hockey puck lemon after each use!
2. NUT MILK BAG: you can get an “actual” nutmilk bag for about $10. Or you can pick up a paint strainer bag at your local hardware store for about $2 or $3 and it will do the same thing. You can use it for a lot more than straining the pulp out of your homemade almond milk. I use mine to squeeze juice out of grated ginger, to line a regular strainer if I need a “finer mesh”, or to strain soups after blending to keep out any seeds or bigger chunks that I might not want floating around.
3. SPROUTING STRAINER LID: a very inexpensive gift of around $4 or $5 that can turn a wide mouth mason jar into a sprouting jar, which is what I used when I finally was able to grow my own sprouts. (The cheesecloth method didn’t work for me.) Growing your own sprouts is a fun way to have a little garden in your house smack in the middle of winter – include a bag of organic sprouting seeds and a couple of recipes and you have a great little gift!
For your FITNESS-LOVING friends:
1. MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS: I’m a big fan of magazines as gifts, because every time that magazine shows up in their mailbox they think of the person who gave them the gift! Runner’s World offers 12 months for $15 and Women’s Health offers 12 months for $13.97.
2. GLIDING DISKS: I have a set of ValSlides which are awesome (oh the reverse sliding lunges – killer!). On Amazon they are selling for $39, but I didn’t pay nearly that, so I’m guessing now that they are more popular the price has gone up. There are other brands that do the same thing, such as Gliding Disks. But really, these are just the same thing as the moving disks you can put under furniture with an upcharge for a fitness professional’s name on it. How about spending $9 and getting the moving disks? I think they come in sets of FOUR so you can open it, and give 2 to one friend and 2 to another friend and then you’ve only spent $4.50! Then print off the exercises at About.com to include in the wrapping and your giftee has a very portable workout system that can travel anywhere. To see how these work, click here for some sample exercises.
3. EXERCISE TUBING: this is the same idea as above in that it’s extremely portable. I love to travel with my medium or heavy weight exercise tubes because they are light as a feather and take up no space in my suitcase. Medium to heavy weight tubes run between $10 and $15. (Skip the light weight ones – they really don’t have enough resistance). And if you ADD this to the gliding disks above , your giftee won’t even NEED to go to a gym because they’ll have enough for an awesome workout at home.
Outside of that, I also offer gift-certificates for fit living coaching (healthy eating, exercise program design, weight loss) so if you have someone in your life that is looking to make a change in their lifestyle, I’d be happy to help out. Feel free to drop me an email me at shari [at] fitfeat [dot] com for more info.
***
Update on the DDSD challenge for those of you playing along – for the second day in a row, all I was able to do was get in a walk. The good news is that all the probiotics, wheat grass juice, kombucha, green tea, miso soup, fresh fruits and veggies have all helped a lot today and my headache is waning and my eyes are able to focus (MSP told me today that now HIS eyes were starting to hurt – sorry MSP!). I do think it’s a cold I’m fighting because it was in my ears and throat today, but this evening I’m feeling MUCH better. Unfortunately I had to stay home from school today (and missed RAW FOODS) because if I happened to have something contagious, I’d feel TERRIBLE if I passed anything on to my classmates, most of whom will be traveling home to other states for the holidays. That’s NOT the kind of gift I want to be giving my friends!
Have a GREAT evening! See you next time!
– Shari B. =)
