In our family, we’re big on stockings...so I very much had that in mind as I compiled this list:

Chocolate- I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t appreciate a good bar of chocolate in their stocking around the holidays! When I look for chocolate, I personally look for organic, dark (over 70%) and soy free versions. If you happen to live in a town or city that has a local chocolatier, I highly recommend checking in with them to see if they have any quality chocolate bars for purchase. My personal favorites are:

• Black and Green 85% Dark Chocolate
  
• Alter Eco Dark Chocolate Sea Salt
• Beyond Good 92% Chocolate 

Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee and Elixirs- Mushrooms have long been a powerful superfood loaded with tons of nutrients and we certainly don’t eat enough of them! This company has tastefully found a way to blend various beneficial mushrooms with other ingredients (like coffee) to provide you with high levels of antioxidants and other compounds.

Their coffees are ½ the caffeine with more of the focus and energy!

Depending on the blend you choose, they can enhance your focus and thinking capabilities, help you sleep and even lower your anxiety and support your adrenal glands. Perfect for any health focused friend of family member!

These come as bags or individual packets, which are great as stocking stuffers! You can get the mushroom elixir sample pack, latte and hot cocoa sampler, or a pack of lion's mane and chaga & cordyceps and chaga coffee blends (my personal favorites).
 
Clay Facial Masks- self care is a pretty important piece of living a healthy life. And for athletes, health care of the skin can be crucial. We sweat a lot. And most of us spend a lot of time outdoors training. That means we need to take care of our skin! For that, small packs of natural facial clay masks do the trick! This derma e Purifying 2-in-1 Charcoal Face Mask with Activated Charcoal all natural, 100% vegan and cruelty free, and does not contain parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, lanolin, gluten or GMOs.

Books- All health enthusiasts generally have 1 thing in common: they like to eat healthy food. These food-focused books are just a few of my favorites that can be used by anyone interested in being active and healthy (triathletes, runners, hikers, yogis, etc).

• Run Fast Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan 
• Feed Zone Portables by Allen Lim- this is easily the book I’ve personally gifted most. I love it. 
• The Real Food Athlete by Steph Lowe

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Silicone Popsicle Molds- I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my silicone popsicle molds for any extra post workout smoothie that I might not be consuming in the moment. They can oftentimes get me through the last few minutes of a hard workout in the heat! For any of your active friends of family members that complete hot workouts, these popsicle molds will be much appreciated!!!

Biodegradable Natural Body Wipes- These no-rinse body wash wipes are a perfect gift for an athlete constantly on the go. Bonus that they are biodegradable, so they break down naturally. These wipes will leave an athlete feeling a full-body cleanse while also supporting the planet the planet. 

Coffee- If your loved one is a coffee drinker, specialty coffees make a great gift! Many sustainable coffee growers offer online ordering 

• Peak Performance High Altitude Coffee
• Larry’s Organic Fair Trade Coffee 3 Pack- Larry’s Coffee is an eco-friendly and sustainability-minded company that creates small-batch Fair Trade, Organic, Shade-Grown coffee.
• Ethical Bean Fair Trade Coffee

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Please note that some of the links are affiliate links.
​Meaning, if you buy someone a gift by using those links, you’re also giving us a gift (a small commission) in return – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support in this way!

​
Please note that some of the links are affiliate links.
Meaning, if you buy someone a gift by using those links, you’re also giving me a gift (a small commission) in return – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support in this way!
​

If your family traditionally eats turkey for your Thanksgiving meal, you're in luck because turkey is already low carb! However, turkey is not high fat! If you're wanting to keep your meal LCHF, I highly advise you reach for the darker cuts of meat and eat the skin, which will provide some added fat to this naturally low fat protein.

However, if you're interested in taking this low-fat protein and make it keto friendly, my advice is to add an herbed butter! This is a very simple thing to do ahead of time and bring to your Thanksgiving feast. You can add it to your turkey, but also to steamed green beans and many other lower fat dishes you might find at your table.

If you're the lucky one who gets to make the turkey this year, consider adding your herbed butter as a rub before you roast it! Maya Krampf of Wholesome Yum has a great blog on the whole process, including a great EASY GARLIC BUTTER HERBED BUTTER recipe that you can check out HERE.

Looking for a nutrient dense stuffing that isn't bread based but still tastes and feels like traditional stuffing?  Heather Dessinger of Mommypotamus has one of the best EASY GLUTEN FREE STUFFING recipes (pictured above) that I've ever tried! Seriously, I didn't think it was possible to make something taste like bread that doesn't actually have bread in it, but this recipe does it.

If you want to stick with a bread based stuffing but still want a low carb option, be prepared to make your own keto bread (unless you can find a quality keto bread in the stores). It can be more time consuming, but it's worth it! One of my favorite recipes for a bread based KETO STUFFING comes from blogger 'Howtodothisandthat.

There really is no way to make a potato low carb. So if mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving favorite of yours, you might want to consider making yourself a side of cauliflower mash. Honestly, if you load up your cauliflower mash with good fats from olive oil and butter, and then add some of your favorite herbs, you won't miss the potatoes! Check out this MASHED CAULIFLOWER WITH GARLIC AND HERBS recipe from Downshiftology. It's a family favorite in my household!

Gravy was one of the last dishes our family converted from a package, to a nutrient dense and absolutely DELICIOUS thanksgiving dish. And I'm always wondering why the heck we waited so long to do it! It's really not hard to make a fantastic gravy from scratch...it just takes a little pre-planning.

Most gravy recipes call for broth. Yes, you can buy this in a can or cardboard box, but trust me, if you make it from scratch ahead of time, it will add a punch of flavor to your gracy that won't go unnoticed. 

I personally have broth on hand at all times which makes the step of the process a little quicker. You can find jars of it in my fridge and if I have extra, you better bet I'm freezing it for later. All week, I collect vegetable ends and bones from our meals. Once I have a pretty good amount of these bits, I'll throw them into my instant pot with a package of chicken paws and water to make a delicious broth! You can find a recipe for CHICKEN BONE BROTH similar to the one I follow (I just use scraps in mine) from Jennifer McGruther from The Nourished Kitchen. If you are going to make this recipe specifically for Thanksgiving, be sure to pull the giblets out of your turkey a few days ahead of time to use in the broth!

Once you have your broth, I really truly believe that the best tasting gravy's come from the turkey drippings. You can find a very easy, low carb and GLUTEN FREE GRAVY recipe from Regina at Leelalicious.

Despite all the talk of avoiding all fruit while eating keto, really what most people are trying to avoid is natural sugar from fruit. Luckily, cranberries are very low in natural sugar which actually makes them keto friendly. That's also why most traditional cranberry recipes call for massive amounts of sugar!

To avoid this traditional sugary side, you can easily swap the table sugar found in most traditional cranberry recipes for an alternative keto sugar like monk fruit or swerve. This CRANBERRY SAUCE recipe from Chad Campbell at That Low Carb Life blog is great and includes a little orange zest for an added kick of flavor.

When I ask clients about traditional thanksgiving vegetable side dishes, it never seems like I get the same answer twice. Each family seems to have their own favorites, and luckily, most of them tend to be pretty keto friendly.

Like the turkey, if your traditional vegetables sides are naturally low fat, consider adding a dollop of herbed butter on top to add both flavor and a good, healthy fat to the dish.

Dessert is where keto can get tricky if you don't plan ahead. Luckily, there are many different alternative sugar options to pick from now-a-days that can help you create a dessert that both tastes amazing and won't spike your blood sugar!

Three of my favorite low carb sweeteners are monk fruit, stevia and swerve. 

Monk fruit is a natural source of sweetness that has been around for centuries (despite many of us only learning about it recently). The name was given to this fruit after the monks who harvested it.  The fruit itself has a very short shelf life which is why it is dried.  The dried fruit is what is then processed into the sweetener we use today. The sweetness of monk fruit comes from mogrosides which are actually antioxidants!  It is about 200-300x sweeter than regular table sugar however, it contains none of the calories and does not impact our blood sugar in the same was as table sugar.   It can be found as liquid, powder, or granules. 


Stevia, another natural sweetener that has been around for a long time, is derived from the plant Stevia rebaudiana ( I grew it in my garden this year!).  Like monk fruit, the compounds that make Stevia sweet are about approximately 200 times sweeter than typical table sugar but without attack on your blood sugar.  In its pure form, stevia has zero carbohydrates, and zero calories. However, most stevia products combine stevia leaf extract with other ingredients such as dextrose, maltodextrin, erythritol or other fillers to help reduce the sweetness and mimic the taste of traditional table sugar. So be sure to choose a brand that doesn't contain these fillers if you're sensitive to sugar alcohols.


Swerve is a blend of three ingredients. Erythritol is the first and most prominent ingredient, and is naturally made by fermenting glucose. Prebiotic fibers called oligosaccharides are added, and then the blend is enhanced with some natural flavor from citrus. Swerve provides a similar level of sweetness to sugar and has the ability to caramelize, which makes it great for many holiday recipes!


Some of my favorite recipes include this CLASSIC PUMPKIN PIE (with crust recipe) from the Paleo Running Momma, this KETO PECAN PIE from Taryn at Joy Filled Eats, and our families personal favorite KETO APPLE CRISP from Vered DeLeeuw at the Healthy Recipes blog.

My hope is that these recipes help you enjoy a Thanksgiving feast while still honoring your health goals this year and beyond! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!