Ready or not, here comes the 2013  holiday season! What are you planning on starting with first, baking, decorating, shopping or partying? How about making some DIY holiday gifts? This month the Recipe Redux is here to help with the theme Adding Merriment to Mixes.  Our challenge is to show you how to make a shelf stable DIY gift right in your own kitchen. From the ingredients of the mix to the packaging of the finished product, we will help you spread some love from your kitchen.

I am stoked about this theme; it has such great versatility and allows you to give something from your kitchen that doesn’t have to be gobbled up right away. Besides, how many  cookies, cakes, and candies can we consume in the month of December anyway? Picking just one DIY item proved to be more difficult than I originally thought;  there are so many fun items to make it’s hard to narrow down to just one!  I considered cake mixes, cookie mixes, and hot chocolate mixes. But I ended up choosing something on the other end of the spectrum, a  DIY gift for the fitness enthusiast! It’s a 32 oz. sport bottle, packaged with ingredients to make a  beverage  appropriate for recovery  after a bout of resistance training  (sleeve of Lemonade Crystal Light and a ‘to go’ pack of BiPro unflavored whey protein).  Because this beverage is most effective consumed within 30 minutes after training ,  I’ve included a wire mixing ball to the package by tying it into the ribbon.

Here’s a note you can add to the sport bottle with directions for mixing and using:

Post Resistance Recovey Beverage: Add ingredients (sleeve of Lemonade Crystal Lite and ‘to go’ packet of BiPro whey protein) to sport bottle and  fill with 16-2o ounces of water. Add wire mixing ball. Shake and enjoy within 30 minutes after completion of your strength/resistance workout.

So how did I go from something sweet and satisfiying to something that offers the benefits of maintaining and/or building muscle? When the Recipe Redux posted the November DIY gift theme I was working on this video:  Mazimize Strenth Gains with Nutrition. I couldn’t help myself from thinking my post resistance recovery beverage makes great  DIY gift!  For those of you questioning  the merriment side of this, your gift recipient’s merriment will be transcended by their new looks.

Be sure to check out all of the other DIY mixes at the bottom of this post for everyone on your gift giving list!

What kinds of gifts do you give to the fitness enthusiast?

BiProUSA sent me complimentary samples of their product. I was not expected to post a review and I am not being compensated for my time.