Every girl needs a cute bag to haul gear to and from the gym, and this girl has been using a cheap-o-falling-apart bag for too long. The ideal gym bag should be as cute as it is durable.I’m personally wishing for a Timbuk2 Women’s Skylark Tote ($99). The thing that sold me on it? The water bottle pocket! (I’m tired of my water bottle falling over and leaking on my other gear.)
It also has a yoga mat holster, detachable backpack straps and interior pockets for your keys and credit cards. Cute and functional, they’re sure know what a girl wants!
It’s not easy to stay active once the weather gets cold, but having cute and functional cold weather accessories sure helps. I especially recommend a pair of “tech gloves.” These handy little guys let you change your workout music on your phone without having to take off your gloves! They come in a wide variety of brands and price ranges (as low as $2) to fit your style and your budget. Tech gloves were a big item on sale on Black Friday last year, and I predict we’ll see even better deals on them this year, so keep an eye out! The North Face Women’s Etip Gloves ($45, pictured right) can give your winter wardrobe a pop of color to energize a dark and blustery day.
And if your ears tend to get cold, I highly recommend a product called Earbags. Don’t let the strange name throw you, these little guys are a lifesaver on a cold day. The small, ear-shaped bags fit tightly around your ears to keep you warm, and they’re small enough to fit in your pocket (unlike traditional earmuffs).
Another thing that’s great for achy muscles? A nice deep tissue massage! But if you’re like me, you probably don’t have the cash to splurge on a massage every time your muscles are sore. Foam rollers can give you a lot of the same benefits of a massage without the price tag. You can get one for as little as $5, or if you’re looking for something a little more special, you might want to try out The Grid Foam Roller by Trigger Point Performance ($25-$65).
Just like massage therapists uses different parts of their hands and arms to massage different muscle groups, this little roller has different sized ridges to relieve pressure in different spots. I haven’t tried it, but it’s got great reviews on Amazon, and that’s usually a pretty good sign.
What do you get for the fitness nerd who has everything? Clothes! You can never have too many cute workout shirts. I personally love Nike dry fit or anything Lululemon!
So this one isn’t technically on my list, but my mom gave it to me for my birthday last month, and I just have to share. I’m a fitness nerd in the truest sense of the word. I love being able to track my progress and see improvement (or get a kick in the pants if I start slacking off). That’s why the Fitbit One has been great fun!
I already have a GPS watch to track my distance when I’m running, but I do a lot of activity during my regular day that I wasn’t tracking. I could walk to Starbucks or do two hours of shopping and have no data to see how far I’d gone. The Fitbit One is no simple pedometer; this little guy also tracks how many flights of stairs you climb in a day, how many calories you burn, and it monitors your sleeping patterns.
Plus, it’s fun! It displays little motivational messages every once in a while to boost your spirits (this morning when I woke up it told me “you rock!”). And you can compete with friends who have Fitbit to see who can take the most steps in a week. Plus you can earn badges when you reach fitness milestones. It automatically emails you when you’ve earned a badge, and then it will give you a goal of the next badge you should work toward getting. You get a weekly progress report showing you how far you’ve gone, what your least active and most active days were and more! And if you don’t want all of that information emailed to you, you can always change your email preferences.
You can also log other activities (like spin class or weight training) from the smartphone app or on your computer. I highly recommend this tiny wonder for anyone who wants motivation to get active in their everyday life.
Working out doesn’t necessarily have to feel like work. I personally love playing active games on my husband’s Xbox Kinect or Wii. Both of those systems have workout games, but I much prefer dancing games (that just so happen to also give you an awesome total body workout).
There’s no better post-workout snack than a fresh fruit smoothie, but it can be a hassle to break out the blender (and clean it out afterward). I much prefer having a single-serve blender.
fitnessdiva21 
This is awesome, haha remember the days when we used to flip through magazines and turn the corner over to find our Christmas list ideas? Now I can just bookmark blogs like these when I find something I like 🙂 Love it! I would also suggest maybe a little hygiene kit for after the gym when you are on the go!