Health and Wellness Christmas Gift Guide

There are literally sackloads of health and wellness Christmas gift guide ideas out there for the special people in your life, so we’ve had a quiet word with Santa and got him to tell us the best of the bunch so that hopefully it’ll make your Christmas shopping a darn sight easier.

And yes I know it might seem a teensy bit early, but hey the way I see it is – get your shopping done and dusted and then you’ll have more time to enjoy mulled wine, mince pies and all those Christmas knees up!

To help you further, because I’m good like that, I’ve split the gifts into categories of who I think they are most suited to, so grab a cuppa, stick on some cheesy festive tunes, light an evergreen scented candle and let’s get Christmas sorted!

Fitness Fanatic

We all know someone who likes to keep track of what they’re doing fitness-wise and this TOAD training diary is absolutely perfect for doing just that. Each week is spread across a double page allowing for plenty of room to record the type of training you’ve done each day, goals you’ve set, notes on how it went, as well as the standard space for jotting down appointments etc. that you’d use a standard diary for. In addition, the diary includes training schedules, key fitness event listings, stretches and core exercises, injury prevention, diet and nutrition advice and a few healthy recipes.

And the best bit is that you can personalise the diary to suit the recipient you intend it for, making it a really thoughtful and unique gift. The front and back cover can include a personalised message and there is a choice of front cover design including running, cricket, football, golf, gym, rugby, swimming, tennis, yoga and the more generic fitness, so there really is something for everyone.

You don’t need to be an elite athlete to benefit from recording your exercise, in fact it’s proven that keeping track of your performance is hugely beneficial in terms of keeping you motivated and showing you just how far you’ve developed, or indeed areas of weakness that you need to work on. It also makes you more accountable, so if for instance you plan out a schedule in advance, you are much more likely to stick to it if it’s written down.

This A5 runners diary is available for £12.95 from TOAD Diaries where you can also find a whole range of other personalised diaries.

When You Don’t Have the Right Words

Not everyone gets to spend Christmas at home, and out of those that do there are still those people that may not necessarily feel as though they want or have the energy to celebrate. Cancer care parcels have been lovingly put together to include products that promote calm, comfort and relief from the bigger worries, because let’s face it, THAT is exactly what cancer patients need in a Christmas gift.

This Breast Cancer gift is packed full of goodies:

  • Super Soft Luxury Blanket
  • Easy to hold, wide-necked Water Bottle
  • Adult Colouring Book and Colouring Pencils
  • Lavender and Geranium Linseed Eye Pillows
  • Ribbed Foot Roller
  • Pair of soft Bed Socks
  • Ear Phones
  • Supportive super soft Neck Cushion
  • Lightweight Cool Bag
  • Peppermint Teabags
  • Anti-Nausea Wrist Band
  • Rose and Almond Oil Lip Balm

People often don’t know how to talk to cancer patients and may even avoid seeing them so as to avoid any awkwardness or to risk upset during this sensitive time. But at the same time they want to let the patient know they are thinking of them and this is where Cancer Care parcels offer the ideal solution. Christmas can conjure up all manner of different emotions and so choosing the right gift can be an almost impossible task. Sending a care parcel is a fantastic way to make someone feel loved, cared for and to take their mind away from the bigger picture.

Each item serves a purpose – from the headphones to block out the noise of other patients on a busy ward if the recipient is currently in hospital, to the anti-nausea wrist band to help control the nausea often experienced after chemotherapy, we love how the practical is combined with the feel-good and the fun. Because at the end of the day it is a gift, and the best kinds of gifts are those that are useful, fun and make you feel special, and we think this covers all of those and some.

The Breast Cancer Care parcel costs £94.68 and is available along with a whole range of other cancer care parcels, including Male, Female and Child, from the Cancer Care Parcel website.

(Cancer Care parcels are currently supporting the following charities: Solving Kids Cancer, The CanSurvive Project, RareCareUK.)

Super Stocking Filler Treats

Christmas is a time of indulgence and as much as it’s good to let yourself go every once in a while, it would certainly make January less daunting if we could perhaps rein it in just a little. There’s all that extra alcohol, the stodgy Christmas pud and mince pies, and then there’s the mountains and mountains of chocolate treats calling to you from every tin, tree dec or Christmas selection box…temptation is literally EVERYWHERE!

Supertreats carob bars offer a healthy alternative to the usual sugar laden chocolate bars and having tasted (OK demolished!) them myself I can vouch for how damn tasty they are. The bars are available in three different flavours – Silky Milky (strong, smooth and silky), Cheery Chia (an orange oil flavoured bar packed full of delish crunchy chia seeds and would give Terry’s Chocolate Orange a serious run for its money), and Merry Berry (not to be confused with the delightful Mary Berry, this chewy rammed to the rafters with blueberries bar is my personal fave).

But aside from the taste, which is pretty epic, what else have these bars got going for them?

Well, considering the average choccy bar can contain up to 6 teaspoons of sugar, these little treats have none! Instead they contain coconut nectar blossom as a sweetening agent, and so being refined sugar free there’s none of this crazy, wild eyed, can’t sleep, hecticness business…parents rejoice! They also have zero caffeine and theobromine (stimulants which affect mood, sleep quality and concentration), they’re gluten free, soy free and they’re suitable for vegetarians.

All three bars are growers for sure, and the unique caramel taste does take a little getting used to granted, but they are a taste sensation and if it helps calm the kids down and is better for them then I am ALL for it. Perfect stocking fillers for the kids, in fact do you know what, I’d quite like one in my stocking too please Santa!

Bars retails at around about the £2.00 mark depending on where you buy them. For stockists head on over to Supertreats carob bar.

Big Kids Everywhere

This one’s for kids who love to experiment, lovers of all things different and basically anyone who’s still very much a child at heart. When Bubble Tea landed on our doorstep, we didn’t know what to expect, but this is a taste explosion that could be about to take the British drinks world by storm. Originating in Taiwan, the concept of bubble tea is this…cold or hot fruit or milk teas, served with squishy, sometimes flavoured, tapioca balls and drunk through a wide straw. Sounds a bit strange admittedly, but the possibilities of different flavour combinations and the extent to which you could take this concept is quite extraordinary. Bobalife offer a range of 4 different gift boxes – Traditional, Milk Selection, Fruity Selection and the Monthly Mix – which includes all the kit you need to learn and master the skill that is Bubble Tea.

The balls (or ‘boba’ as they are known) burst in the mouth, releasing an extra burst of flavour. In the picture below you’ll see that I made peach iced tea with strawberry boba, which was honestly the most refreshing drink and considering I am someone who doesn’t even like tea, well let’s just say I’ve been converted!

I’m not about to try and convince you that these are the healthiest drinks in the world, because they’re not, but hey Christmas is all about fun and treats and this gift deffo meets that criteria. Plus if you did want to get full on experimental with them then you could deffo ‘health’ this up with some matcha, soy, coconut milk extravaganzas! We reckon this would make a great gift for kids who love science or for adults who like getting creative in the kitchen and have always had a bit of a thing for Tom Cruise in the film ‘Cocktail’ 😉

In fact this isn’t just a great gift idea, we also think it would make a fab alco free option to serve your teetotal or designated driver guests over the festive season, because why should they miss out on all the frivolities.

Prices range from £24.50 right up to £190 for a monthly 12 month subscription and you can also buy individual items such as teabags, tapioca pearls, fruit flavoured boba and syrups. For more details head on over to the Bobalife website.

Tricky Teens

It’s never easy buying for teens is it? Especially if it’s not your own son or daughter and even when it is it’s an absolute minefield! And whilst yes it’s easy to give money or a gift voucher, it’s not quite the same as watching them open a present on the big day.

Choosing a present that doesn’t cause offence, is considered cool enough, yet also helps inspire and promotes those positive message that all teens need to hear is a tricky balance to strike, but thankfully House of Wonderland have got loads of quirky little bits and bobs that tick all those boxes. Putting the fun into funky you can buy everything from enamel badges emblazoned with empowering messages, positive tongue in cheek prints, nail transfers and pretty much unicorn everything – literally the dream!

(From L – R: Survivor Enamel Pin £6.00, Think Happy Thoughts Pen £2.50, Mini Meal Planner Notepad £4.50, Leg Hair Don’t Care Mirror £5.00)

And hey, having looked through the range ourselves we reckon it’s not just for teens, hell we’ve put a few pieces on our own wishlist and eyed up a few as little gifts for some of our BFF’s.  Something different, something heartwarming and guaranteed to put smiles on faces.

Strong and Sassy Sisters

We are so excited about this swimsuit from the new women’s fitness swimwear brand Deakin and Blue and we reckon the special lady in your life will be just as excited too!

Their best-selling Coral Swimsuit (pictured) is literally the dream in terms of fit, because through the use of body sucking, hold it all in, enhance and make you look your tip top best materials (OK so that’s Lycra and Polyamide in layman’s terms) it feels both comfortable and supportive and looks pretty damn sexy to boot. And us women like that right? I mean yes there’s other support swimsuits out there, but they’re often way too fuddy duddy and constructed like a form of tortuous scaffolding to the boobs – they hurt, they dig in, and they make you look rubbish. But not this beaut!

This brand is all about the real (yay to that!), so each swim piece is designed around real women with real body shapes. None of this unachievable Barbie girl thigh gap nonsense, nope this is about ALL body shapes. Whether your boobs are AA or HH, or your butt is an 8 or a 16, there’s a swimsuit to flatter your shape. And having popped one on myself I can vouch for the feel good factor – I’m personally not much of a swimmer, but trust me when I say I upped my sassy strut game around the house on that particular fine day!

We’re all for empowering women and love any product that helps a woman feel confident, sassy and as if she can take on the world…or her local swimming pool at the very least!

We think this would make the perfect gift for women looking to kickstart their fitness in the New Year or for those fortunate enough to have bagged themselves a winter sun holiday (us, jealous?).

The Coral Signature Swimsuit is available to buy from the Deakin and Blue website and costs £105. Not particularly cheap granted, but this is worth every single penny and will deffo score you some top Brownie points from the missus.

Healthy Hipsters and Detox Divas

OK so we get it might seem a little strange to give a loved one a couple of test tubes of pills, but hear us out! The way we figure it is this, people go mad at Christmas – drinking ALL the drinks, eating ALL the food – and come January they are well and truly ready for a big old detox. Ah-ha see where we’re going with this..?

Evermore Health’s MORE: Detox set includes 3 weeks worth of detox capsules in the form of Spirulina and Chlorella – the blue/green algae superstars of the detox world. It’s recommended that you take one of each capsule every morning over the course of 21 days to act as a full inside out cleanse of the body. But let’s take a look at these in a bit more detail, what makes Spirulina and Chlorella so good that you’d consider giving them as a present?

Spirulina

Contains high levels of…

  • Vitamins B, C and K
  • Minerals – Magnesium, Calcium, Iron and Potassium
  • 2800% more Beta Carotene than carrots!
  • 3900% more Iron than spinach!

Good for…

  • Eliminating toxins from the body
  • Improving digestive system
  • Reducing cholesterol
  • Boosting immune system

Chlorella

Contains high levels of…

  • Vitamins A and B-Complex
  • Minerals – Magnesium, Potassium and Zinc
  • Chlorophyll – the green!

Good for…

  • Removing heavy metal toxins such as mercury and lead from the body
  • Supporting healthy hormone function
  • Boosting natural energy levels
  • Increasing immunoglobin (that’s antibodies to you and me!)

42 capsules (that’s both test tubes) costs £15.00 and we reckon if you combined this with some of the other Evermore supplements, perhaps presenting them in a stylish wooden test tube holder it would make a fab and unexpected gift to the health conscious people in your life.

Gluten Free Foodies

And finally, what’s a gift guide without some kind of cakey goodness you can put in a hamper for your neighbour, parents, grandparents, well pretty much anyone really, ‘cos I dunno about you lot but I love getting food as a present!

This Festive Free From Stollen by Elizabeth D Bakes won the Great Taste Award in 2016 and we can totally see why. With its crumbly yet doughy texture and rich cranberry, pistachio, orange, cardamom and marzipan flavours, we were completely bowled over by just how good this sweet treat is. Available as bars to put into hampers or in tins for a ready made gift, we love the fact that each piece of stollen is handmade using all natural ingredients.

Really moist, highly spiced, packed full of fruit, we reckon this would be great heated up as a pudding and smothered in custard.

The individual stollen bars are priced at £3.50 each or you can get the gift box, which contains 16 pieces of stollen, for £16.50 from the Elizabeth D Bakes website. Please note that because the stollen is super fresh, and in order for it to reach Christmas with a 6 week shelf life, the stollen will be available to buy as of the 1st of November.

Well, I think we’ve pretty much covered everyone then… Christmas shopping DONE!


We’d love to hear what you’re going to buy for your festive foodies, exercise elves, healthy holly’s and wellness wise men…so get in touch!

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