Slimming: Healthy gifts

We’re often giving gifts to our family and friends; at birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, when we’ve been on a special holiday, or to thank them for something they’ve done for us. In a lot of cases, we give food. People like to receive food and drink as gifts, particularly if it’s something luxurious that they wouldn’t buy for themselves. The difficulty comes when they’re trying to lose weight, or eat healthily - what sort of gifts can you give?

In today’s consumer world, we can always find an alternative to the box of chocolates, or bottle of wine. In fact, there’s more choice of gifts now than ever before. If you go to mainstream, high street shops, you’ll find that their food gift baskets are full of luscious, indulgent products, but if you look a little harder and do a bit more research, you can find a wealth of healthy gifts.

Food baskets can be prepared with a wide range of healthy products; in fact, if you know the person well and know what they can and can’t eat, you can prepare your own special gift, full of the things they need to eat, with perhaps a little treat thrown in for good measure. Organic food baskets come with tasty snacks, fruit and other foodstuffs and you can get gift boxes specially prepared for children, or for someone who is recovering from an illness. Instead of baby clothes, try a “new mum” gift of healthy foods that she can munch any time of day or night, boosting her energy and helping her to regain her pre-pregnancy weight. Fill a box with foods that reduce stress or induce calm, for someone you know is under pressure.

Try taking someone on a day out, rather than handing them a tin of biscuits. Drive out into the countryside with a healthy picnic and have a walk. It will allow you to spend some time together and get some valuable exercise. Equally, you could treat them to a day at the gym or a spa to give them some relaxing time away from their everyday stresses, without having to pile on the calories.

Giving healthy gifts takes a bit more time and requires a bit of research and creativity, but they are always warmly welcomed by the receiver and you will have the pleasure of knowing you have contributed positively to their slimming programme. http://health.gov/