Is there a fitness-minded girl on your list this year? If you’re pressed for ideas, maybe I can help you come up with a winner. These are a few of my favorite things.

Gift card for my favorite local running specialty store (here in Phoenix, it would be Runners Den) - replacing a pair of seen-better-days running shoes always zaps new energy into my workouts! Cards for REI, Sports Authority, and Dicks Sporting Goods work wonders, too!

iTunes gift card - I don’t know about you, but music can make or break my workouts, and I’m always grabbing new songs (and newly discovered or rediscovered oldies) at the iTunes store.

New headphones to go with my new music - a match made in heaven. These from Bose are amazing.

A new foam roller - I’ll admit I rock but definitely don’t “roll” as often as I should. Self-Myofascial release by way of a foam roller should be an integral part of anyone’s well-rounded workout program to assist in releasing trigger points caused by training, help you improve or maintain your flexibility and mobility and reduce your risk of injury.

And while we’re talking about this stuff, a gift card for massage therapy would rock and roll. I’m just sayin’.

A Ball-Chair to replace my annoying desk chair at home, which isn’t really helping my posture or my back when I spend long hours in front of it on one of my many side projects! Sitting on a physioball puts you in a more ergonomic position, helps you strengthen your core muscles and improves your overall spinal and pelvic stability, which translates into better overall posture, core strength and performance in your training and sport.

If the girl you’re shopping for loves to work out and has a busy travel schedule, a TRX Suspension Training system not only makes a great gift, it wins you bonus points by showing her you know how important it is to her to keep up with her workouts on the road.

Adjustable dumbbells (like Powerblock or SelectTech) are a great, long-term investment kind of gift, if you know this girl doesn’t already have them! She may not even think she needs, them, but on those days when it’s cold outside, and driving to the gym seems like more of a hassle than it’s worth, or days when you just want to stay home but want to do something, these babies are like a well-equipped gym packed into a pair of dumbbells.

I love my Big Back Lifting Grips! They’re better than lifting gloves, great for working with the heavy metal at the gym. And since I lose everything, I love that they’re affordably priced at just $4.95! If you know a girl who likes to lift weights, these little babies make a great stocking stuffer.

Finally, I know gift cards seem like a recurring theme on this list, and some people view gift cards as an “impersonal gift”. But when it’s a gift card to a place that tells the recipient you know the kinds of things they like, it’s a little more personal…  So, having said that, what fit chick doesn’t also mind her nutrition? A gift card to Whole Foods Market or Vitamin Shoppe is a nice touch!

You see? We’re really not that hard to shop for, once you know what’s out there… hint, hint.

… when you have no equipment and limited space:

A few interval rounds of squat thrusts, and you can call it a day! Want to kick it up a notch? work them into a super set or circuit with a few other bodyweight exercises!

jumping squat thrusts
(Click on image to view this exercise…)

This morning my fiancé and I woke up and agreed we should at least do a little bit of cardio before settling in for a long-day of lounging, enjoying the long weekend. Thing is, neither one of us really wanted to sweat it out on a bike, a treadmill or elliptical machine. So we did some cardio our way - with “I go, you go” circuits!

The circuit consisted of:

• 10 Kettlebell swings
• 10 1-Arm Kettlebell Squat and Press (5 on each side)
• 10 Dive-Bomber Pushups
• 10 Half-Kneeling Face Pulls
• 10 Step-up to Balance on each leg (total 20)
• 30-second incline treadmill sprint

Seriously - it was brutal. We went for 5 rounds, and each of us took anywhere between 2:57 to 3:17. One of us rested and monitored the stopwatch, while the other did the circuit and then we would switch, until we completed the five rounds.

In the end, we did a brutal 30-minute workout that was more fun, and without a doubt more productive than chugging along on a machine for 30 minutes!

Unrelated to the workout (but probably affected by it in a positive way): We didn’t have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner last night. Our families are in other states, and most of our friends left town for the holiday. And with the wedding just a little over a month away, we can’t afford to be traveling, so we kept it low-key at home with the kitten. Our Thanksgiving dinner was delicious though! Check it out:

Looking to start a new Thanksgiving tradition for yourself or your whole family? What about your local Turkey Trot?

Practically every city has one on Thanksgiving morning, and runners and weekend warriors take to the streets, or the trails. Some do it strategically in preparation for the feast to come. Some do it for fun. Some do it because it’s one more race bib to add to their collection. Some folks enter these races as a family every year - which I think is a great tradition to start if you are trying to lead your family toward a healthier lifestyle!

Whatever your reason or motivation, check out the events in your area (here and here) and do the turkey trot this year!

If you’re looking for some kind of goal to set, to get you started on an exercise program, to stay on track with your existing program, or to take your fitness to the next level… set your sights on one of the Women’s Tri-Fitness competitions!

Sure you can strive to lose a crazy amount of body fat and set a goal or a reward to compete in a figure competition or a bikini contest. And much respect to the ladies who can endure this rigorous training and diet to get there, BUT… what do you do when you’re on stage? You stand there, in a bikini and very high heels, and you pose and you are judged on your appearance. Nobody cares how strong you are, whether you can jump, or pull yourself up, or run. So long as you look athletic, that’s your ticket into the show. I’ve began preparing for one of these figure competitions twice before, but besides becoming ill both times too close to the competition date, it always felt uncomfortable that I was putting myself out there as a woman to be judged on my appearance. That part just doesn’t seem right… so rather than try, try again on this front, I explored other options.

With the women’s tri-fitness competition, not only do you look great because your body simply becomes a product of your training or your “sport”, you get to do stuff and show all the hard work you’ve put in during that training. As the name implies, there are three parts to this competition - a fitness routine, a fitness skills challenge, an obstacle course and a grace/physique round.

The fitness routine is a choreographed routine set to music, where you can show off your strength, endurance, flexibility and presentation and use any other skills you might have - dance, gymnastics or cheerleading, martial arts, etc.

The skills challenge, next on the list, is harder than it sounds! It consist of 50 box jumps for time, bench pressing 60% of your weight for reps, and a timed shuttle run.

The obstacle course is my holy grail, and my goal is to compete by my 35th birthday just to dominate this beast. It comprises 12 “stations”: a 10-foot wall, a running grid, ascending and descending monkey bars, a balance beam, a 15-foot cargo net, a shuttle run, two hurdles, a steeple chase jump over water, a sprint, and over-and-under bars.

I went to the training camp a few years ago in Tampa, and I have to admit the obstacle course is my favorite part, and quite possibly the most challenging, since I didn’t really have a varied athletic background growing up. In fact, except for sprinting and monkey bars, it was the first time I’d jumped hurdles, climbed walls or any of that!

The final, optional, round is the grace and physique round, where… yeah… you stand on stage and wear a bikini and high heels and are judged on your grace and physical appearance. Wait a minute, Ivonne! Didn’t you just say…? I know what I said, but in the Women’s Tri-Fitness, by the time you get to this event, you’ve more than proven what that beautiful, athletic body can do! You can go up on that stage, confident that you’ve trained hard not to simply stand up there and hope the judges agree that you look good.

Their next big competition is in July 2009 - the Tri-Fitness World Challenge in Las Vegas! Check out the website and register early!