Still looking for a special holiday gift for your swimmer? When it comes to food and nutrition, all swimmers could use a little help, so give your swimmer a competitive edge with these gift ideas.

1. Instead of baking (or buying Christmas cookies), teach your swimmer how to bake their own energy bars. There are many good recipes, but I like this one for Energy Bars from registered dietitian, Ellie Krieger. Teaching your child to bake is a gift that keeps on giving, so get in the kitchen together to whip up some healthy treats and freeze them for an easy snack to take to swim practice.
2. If baking isn’t your forte, how about a case of chocolate milk? Granola bars, whey protein bars, bloks and gels are also good ideas. With whatever you choose, tuck in a little note about how to use them: dairy drinks are good recovery drinks, bloks or gels are best before practice or during a long workout and should be accompanied by drinking water; whey protein bars are best eaten after a hard practice or strength-training session, and granola or energy bars are best 3-4 hours before training, so they have time to be digested.
3. Time for a new water bottle? There are so many options to choose from: stainless steel, wide mouth (especially good for drinking poolside when there is a break in training), leak proof, double-walled, and sweat proof. Some can keep drinks cold for 24 hour and drinks hot for 12 hours.
4. How about a throw-back, old school thermos? A thermos is perfect for soup-on-the-go and soup makes a great lunch or post-workout snack. Heat your favorite chicken noodle, vegetable, or quinoa soup and pour into the thermos to keep it hot.
5. A wearable fitness tracker. I think a wearable device is better than a subscription-based fitness app; a wearable is one-time purchase but allows tracking all sorts of data to help performance…from workouts to food intake.

Happy holidays to all of the swimmers and here is to a lovely time spent with family and friends, and have a healthy new year!

Chris Rosenbloom is a registered dietitian nutritionist and professor emerita of nutrition at Georgia State University. She is the author of the consumer book, Food & Fitness After 50. She welcomes questions from swimmers, parents and coaches. Email her at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com; follow her on Twitter @chrisrosenbloom or visit her website at ChrisRosenbloom.