What to Drink And What to Avoid While Pregnant

A lot of women worry about what they drink while pregnant. Conflicting information about any number of beverages makes the choices even more difficult. The key is moderation. With the exception of water, any beverage I list below can be harmful during pregnancy if your wife drinks it by the gallon on a regular basis.

What to Drink

Water. Water should be everyone’s primary beverage. And I’m not talking about all of these new vitamin waters or flavoured powder mixes. Just plain old H²O. Get a water filter if you have concerns about what’s in your tap water. Other than that, you should be drinking it as clear as possible.

Tea. Black, green, oolong and white teas are all safe to drink during pregnancy. Depending on the depth of processing and the steeping time, the amount of caffeine in each cup will vary (black teas are generally the strongest, whereas white teas contains almost no caffeine). In case you didn’t know, all tea comes from the same plant. The “color” you see marketed by tea companies describes the level of processing the leaves undergo from plant to cup.

Herbal Infusions. Often incorrectly called “tea”, these are basically some other plant’s leaves or flowers steeped in water. Most herbals are safe to drink, and sometimes contain added benefits. For example, ginger can ease the effects of nausea during the first trimester.  Probably the safest to drink during pregnancy is probably Rooibos, or African Red Bush. Not only is it chock full of beneficial properties, it also contains no caffeine. Be sure that she avoids Rooibos that is blended with other herbs in case there is something harmful mixed in. Be sure to do a little research first before she tries any other herbal infusions.

Soda. While these drinks can contain a ton of sugar (one reason alone to avoid), as an alternative to coffee or cola, soda is an ok option. One can or less a day won’t cause any harm.

Special Note On Caffeine. While many doctors advise pregnant women should stay away from caffeine, just as many say it’s safe. The key thing to consider is quantity. Generally, pregnant women should ingest less than 200mg of caffeine each day – about one 12oz cup of coffee. For comparison, an 8oz cup of black tea contains about 40-60mg of caffeine, while a 12oz can of Pepsi is only about 40mg. Caffeine aside, be sure to consider what other chemicals that are in the beverage when using this figure as a guide.

What to Avoid

Alcohol. This is a no-brainer. Alcohol is bad for anyone, let alone pregnant women. Most women are sensible enough to avoid it. The best part is that my wife has no problem being the designated driver for the next two years.

Herbal Infusions. Yes, I suggest both drinking and avoiding herbal infusions. The reason is that there are certain herbs that may cause problems. Rosemary, thyme, and lavender have all been known to complicate certain stages of pregnancy. Additionally, Chamomile has come under fire as some studies have found that it can have adverse effects on the uterus. While most of the evidence and advice is contradictory, it is probably best that she just avoid it altogether.

Cola. While it contains less caffeine than tea or coffee, colas often contain a whole host of other unnatural ingredients that I certainly suggest you avoid. That said a can of Coke or Pepsi is not going to do much harm. I just suggest she avoid them whenever possible.

Coffee. This one gets a bad rap, and for generally good reasons. By volume, coffee contains a lot of caffeine compared to almost any other drink. Not only that, but the type of caffeine found in coffee produces a stronger effect than tea or cola (often known as the “coffee high”).This can not only cause her higher stress, but can lead to a dangerously elevated fetal heart rate. She should probably kick her Starbucks habit until after your baby is no longer nursing.

While I do make a distinction between drinks to avoid and those that are safe, the important consideration is, again, moderation. Anything is safe so long as she does not drink excessive amounts of it. One night of heavy drinking will immediately convince you of that.

Quick & Effective Workouts For New Dads

Time is short for most people. With a new baby, it’s even harder to get to the gym and exercise. Gone are the days of long strength and cardio sessions and more dads and dads-to-be are leaving their gyms behind and exercising from home. It makes even more sense once the new baby is home.

You need to keep you energy levels high so you can better endure long periods of little sleep.

You need to keep stay strong because you will need to handle more of the chores and manuals tasks as your wife spends half her waking hours with a baby on her breast.

My solution is to keep my workouts short and intense, enabling me to stay refreshed and strong. By restricting myself to shorter workouts (often 20-30 minutes, sometimes shorter) I run out of excuses.

If you are new to this style of exercise, or are looking for inspiration, below you will find some ideas to get started and branch off of.

Tools

Dumbbells or Kettlebells. I prefer kettlebells as the shape makes it easier to move between exercises. Dumbbells, on the others hand, are adjustable and allow you use a greater variety of weight in one workout. For the workouts below I’d recommend sticking with one weight for the entire session. Great exercises to use:

• Swings, Snatches, Clean and Press, Squats, Lunges, Rows, Turkish Getups

Jump Rope. This is a great conditioning tool to use as active rest between set or as an Anchor (described below).

Pullup Bar. This is optional, but opens up vast possibilities in strength development.

Body. This is your best tool for most workouts. When using external resistance, I like to keep to simple variations of the following movements:

• Pushups, Burpees, Squats, Lunges, Jumps

Because short workouts need to have a balance of activity and rest, you should also have some sort of timer. There are a number of free ones online. The best type of timer allows you to cycle between two intervals, so you don’t have to keep pressing reset and start every time it beeps. I recommend the GymBoss trainer. The best $20 you’ll ever spend on your health.

Methods

There are countless ways to workout in short time periods. Below are a few of my favourite.

Straight Sets. This is just as it sounds. Pick a few exercises that cover the whole body (such as upper push, upper pull, lower push, and lower pull). Then just complete each exercise for a pre-determined number of sets and reps.

Endurance sets. Very similar to straight sets. The only difference is that you pick one exercise and keep going until you reach the desired total. I use this method to test myself on some key exercises. Examples are 500 Swings or 50 Pullups in as many sets as needed.

Timed Circuits. This is my favourite method and one that can be great demanding. The GymBoss timer is perfect for this purpose. Choose an activity period (ex. 60 seconds) and a rest period (ex. 30 seconds). Then choose a few exercises. For each exercise, go hard for a minute, then rest thirty seconds before moving on to the next. Keep repeating the circuit until you’re done. You will know when you’re done.

Rounds for Time. This is a combination of straight sets and circuits. Choose a set period of time, such as 30 minutes. The pick a few exercises that cover the whole body and group them into a circuit. Try to complete as many of these circuits as possible in the set period of time.

Anchoring. This is my second favourite method of organizing a workout. Using the Timed Circuit method, pick one exercise as an ‘anchor’, such as the Jump Rope or Swings. Then choose a few other exercises that target other parts of the body and alternate for as many rounds as desired. I’ll show an example of this below.

Putting It All Together

Let’s lay out three workouts that use the tools and methods described above to illustrate the effectiveness of short, intense workouts. You can complete all of these at home without causing much of a disturbance for the wife and little one. Or just wait until they’re both out on a walk.

Example 1 – Timed Circuits

60 seconds work, 30 seconds rest; Complete 5 rounds total

• Swings
• Pushups
• Clean and Press

Perform each exercise for 60 seconds; rest 30 seconds, and then move on to the next. Once you complete one round, start again at the beginning. Keep going until 5 rounds are completed.

Example 2 – Rounds For Time

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes

• Pullups x 3 reps
• Pushups x 6 reps
• Goblet Squats x 9 reps

Keep going through all this circuit as many times as you can in 20 minutes. Rest as needed. Goblet Squats are performed by cradling dumbbell or kettlebell vertically in front of your chest, basically as you were holding onto a very large goblet.

Example 3 – Anchoring

60 seconds work, 30 seconds rest; Complete 5 rounds total

• Jump Rope
• Squats
• Jump Rope
• Pushups
• Jump Rope
• Swings
• Jump Rope
• Burpees

As with Example 1, perform each movement for 60 seconds and rest for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement. As you can see, this method involves using one movement as the “anchor” and arranging the others around it. This is a very simple example and there are countless ways to “anchor” movements. I like using this method when I want to focus on one exercise in a session, but still get a great full body workout.

There you have it. Endless combinations are possible to keep you going until the baby is in its teens. You can progress over time by shortening rest periods, lengthening work periods, using more demanding exercises, or increasing the load used.