Fit Mom's Blog

As the season of gift giving begins, I’d like to start a once a week series on what you can do for the athlete in your life. Christmas can be an incredibly stressful time of year for everybody, me included. Guests coming and going, meals to make, parties to go to, gifts to buy, appearances to make… For me anyway, it will be MY GOAL to focus on the fun. What makes us happy during the holidays is what we are going to do.

Before I even go into products, I’d like to offer that not all women want things- particularly us moms. The gift of time is as precious or more so than a regular gift! As a mother and an avid athlete, things that I value include gifts of babysitting or time consuming tasks such as cooking. So, with that in mind, an incredibly valuable gift to me would be 8 hours of babysitting spread throughout a month or scheduled days where dinner will be provided by you, the gift giver. I’ve always really appreciated thoughtful gifts and have always worked hard to provide gifts that I think will be cherished by the recipient. Gifts from me or the children to the grandparents have included photo journals, pottery plates and other handmade gifts that don’t require a lot of money. More stuff is just that MORE.

SO HERE IS MY LIST OF GIFT IDEAS FOR $20 OR LESS (all items on this list have been personally tested by me and they are all Things that I love)

1. Magazine Subscriptions: Yoga Journal, Her Sports, Women’s Adventure, Runner’s World, Clean Eating

2. Oiselle Running Jersey: Sleeveless or Long Run Top Style $17 or $20.

3. Headbands: Prana $4 or $10. Summit Hut offers free shipping on everything and depending on where you live, you might not have to pay tax!

4. A yoga DVD, hard to recommend one since there are so many but many are under $20. There are many DVD’s out now specifically for runners, cyclists, and athletes which look promising.  Rodney Yee, YAS, and Sean Corne are all good ones to check out.

5. Camisoles and Undies.  I love the No Sweat Undies from Title Nine, however, one pair is $15. I also love Patagonia’s Camisoles and Undies, but does not quite fall under my $20 budget as a pair of Undies from Patagonia is $20 and it might be cheesy to buy someone just one pair of undies- but they are worthy of the money, I think.

6.  Socks and Hats.  Stylishly, cool socks from SmartWool at $19.95 would make a fantastic gift for anyone who wears boots or lives in the cold weather.  2 Pairs of new cycling socks, would make a great gift or stocking stuffer for the athlete in your life.  (My favorites in this category are DeFeet or SmartWool) And hats, I think I have a bit of a hat fetish…but, my favorite running hats are the ones made by HeadSweats.

7. Race Entry.  Enter your athletic friend in a 5km or 10km in your area 6 weeks after Christmas as an incentive to keep on working out through the holiday season!

8.  NightLife Reflective Vest.  Encourage your athlete to be safe out on the highways for $20! That is a cool gift.  Offered at Team Estrogen. (have not tried this one)

9.  Free Class Pass.  Buy your friends’ passes for yoga in your area and offer to babysit!

10.  Books.  Best books for the athlete in my humble opinion are Marathon Woman, Ultra Marathon Man, Eat, Pray, Love, Training for Cycling by Connie Carpenter and Davis Phinney,  The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga by Sage Rountree…This is a post in itself. I love to read and love to pass off books to friends and family members!

Finally, it would be worthy to seek out the small, woman owned businesses that have that one beautiful eco-friendly tee, or the recylced note pads, something that you can’t buy at Target but would be loved by the recipient.

Please feel free to offer up your best gifts you’ve ever received and the ones that you cherish the most!