Holiday gifts that benefit your health
If you still have a few more relatives or friends on your holiday shopping list here are 5 healthier gift ideas your family and friends may love.
It’s time to get your holiday shopping finished. If you still have a few more relatives or friends on your list who love to hit the trail or work up a sweat in the gym, here are 5 healthier gift ideas your athlete may love.
1) GARMIN Vívoactive® 3
The design of this watch is much sleeker than your average fitness tracker.
With so many different fitness watches on the market, it could be difficult to pick out the right one for that special someone on your list, but the GARMIN Vívoactive 3 combines all you’d want in a fitness tracker and a smartwatch.
It’s loaded with all the health and fitness essentials like the ability to map your run while also measuring steps and stairs, and it can monitor sleep and continuous heart rate, but in this new version, it also tracks your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2), fitness age, and real-time stress levels.
Turning this health tracker into a smartwatch allows users to leave their phones behind to keep up on any incoming calls and texts (although you can’t answer them or text back). Vívoactive 3 also has a music component with storage for up to 500 songs. Connect it to Bluetooth-enabled headphones and you can workout without having your phone by your side. The smart device even comes with a Garmin pay feature that lets you store credit card information so you can leave your wallet behind too.
The design of this watch is much sleeker than your average fitness tracker. The touchscreen watch face is subtle and stylish, much like its competitors, Apple Watch and Fitbit Versa.
Another feature worth mentioning is that compared to other smartwatches, Garmin says Vivoactive 3 can keep going for up to a week on a single charge and 13 hours with GPS turned on.
Price: $299.99, available at Garmin.com
2) TRX Home2 System
The TRX Home2 System comes with one suspension trainer, a year subscription to the TRX app and a door and suspension anchor to easily set up your workout anywhere you want.
The fitness fanatic on your list will thank you for their new at-home TRX system, which will make them feel like they are at a fancy studio class right their own living room.
TRX, which stands for "total body resistance exercise," uses gravity and your own bodyweight to make exercises more challenging. A study done with 16 healthy men and women found users who performed three 60-minute TRX sessions per week saw a significant decrease in waist circumference, body-fat percentage, resting systolic blood pressure and resting diastolic blood pressure.
The TRX Home2 System comes with one suspension trainer, a year subscription to the TRX app and a door and suspension anchor to easily set up your workout anywhere you want.
The company says the setup is easy and can be done in just under a minute. For example, you can mount the anchor right over any door but you will need a workout space that is flat, non-slip and gives you approximately eight feet long and six feet wide of space, according to the company.
The TRX app acts as a mini trainer in your pocket. It includes over 80 workouts with some yoga and high intensity-interval training (HITT) type methods. You can select from an array of different lengths of guided workouts like a 10-minute core strength or a 45-minute endurance challenge.
Price: $199.95, available at TRXtraining.com
3) Gaiam’s Ultimate Balance Ball Chair
Move over standing desks, it's time to sit comfortably and still reap the benefits. Gaiam’s latest version of a balance ball chair is designed to relieve stress on the spine, strengthen the core and improve posture. In fact, a study done by the Department of Communication at Stanford University found people who sat on the Gaiam Balance Ball Chair instead of a regular office chair had significantly better posture, engaged their core muscles more often and reported higher levels of energy.
All of the health benefits come from simply sitting on the ball- and trying to keep your balance. When you sit on top of the round surface, your body is constantly making adjustments with small micro-movements to stay stable, thus remaining active the entire time you’re sitting.
If you're using the chair for a home office, you can even take the ball off the base of the chair so you can use it for exercises and stretches.
The chair also comes equipped with a 5-wheel base to allow smooth movements and a lock function if you want stability.
Price: $99.98, available at Gaiam.com
4) Hammacher’s Germ and Mold Destroying Air Purifier
Hammacher’s Air Purifier is a filter-free device that uses natural convection to draw in contaminated air to destroy the germs and other impurities with 400 degrees of heat.
Help your loved ones stay healthy this year with an air purifier that reportedly eliminates up to 99.9 percent of airborne bacteria, viruses, pet dander, dust mite allergens, pollen, and mold.
Mold can grow inside the home at any time of the year, but when you’re inside more often during the winter months, humidity and moisture are likely to increase, leading to the growth of mold. Even if you don’t have a mold allergy, exposure to molds can cause irritation to the eyes, lungs, nose, skin, and throat, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Hammacher’s Air Purifier is a filter-free device that uses natural convection to draw in contaminated air to destroy the germs and other impurities with 400 degrees of heat. It then sends the new clean air back into the environment without any significant change in room temperature or humidity.
The clean air device also comes with a built-in nightlight with ten different adjustable colors, making it a nice addition to any room or nursery.
Price: $299.95, available at Hammacher.com
5) Packed with Purpose's ‘Good for You Goodies’ Box
For your health concise friend or family member, send them the "Good for You Goodies" box.
Give a healthy gift that gives back with a Packed with Purpose gift box.
These packages are created with products made from non-profits and social enterprises that have an ethical, fair trade and eco-friendly impact on local communities.
For your health concise friend or family member, send them the "Good for You Goodies" box. They'll receive an array of healthy treats like a tea infused energy snack made by Tea Squares, a company that employs young adults from underserved communities throughout Chicago. Trail mix from Together We Bake, a bakery in Virginia that also offers workforce training and personal development to women who have histories of trauma, abuse, or addiction. And a Lola Granola Bar, made from a company that supports anti-hunger and food education programs.
Price: $50, available at Packedwithpurpose.gifts
Stay up-to-date on the biggest health and wellness news with our weekly recap.