If you always groan when someone asks you about your New Year’s resolution, here’s help!
New Year’s resolutions need not be gargantuan tasks. You need not set sky-high objectives or goals. They can be “mini” New Year’s resolutions you can achieve towards your end goal. For eg, you would like to lose weight, starting off by overhauling all your eating and exercise habits as a New Year’s resolution might not be the best idea. Instead set simpler targets such as eating more vegetables in a meal a day, eating less oily food every meal, attending a yoga class once a week. Allow these goals to manifest into good habits extending beyond January, beyond the first quarter. As you meet these milestones, you would feel happier to have achieved them and more motivated to continue. Once you can keep this up towards the end of the year, you should see your end goal of weight loss slowly being fulfilled!
All the very best for your “mini” New Year’s resolutions!

We thank all family, friends, clients and partners for their dear support throughout the year.
May 2013 be a blissful and fruitful new year for you all!

October saw the inaugural Global Congress on Maternal Nutrition organised by Abbott Nutrition.
Dr Kelly Loi, Medical Director of the Health and Fertility Centre for Women, Singapore, shared that "A developing baby's tissues, organs and systems are extremely sensitive to conditions in the womb. A lack of nutrients or an oversupply of them may programme a baby's development and set the subsequent stage for health or disease later in adulthood," she explained. For instance, when the baby is faced with a poor food supply, it shunts nutrients to its most important organ, the brain, while the heart, kidneys, muscles, bones and other tissues do not develop as they should. This may result in one or more chronic diseases years later. On the other hand, pregnant mothers who are obese may also put their offspring at a higher risk of chronic diseases later in life.
Based on the Institute of Medicine Guidelines, the recommended pregnancy weight gain for women of a normal pre-pregnancy BMI (between 18.5 and 24.9) is around 11.3kg to 15.9kg.

"To ensure that the baby gets optimal nourishment, an expecting mum should focus on the quality of her diet. Cut back on fat, salt and sugar but increase intake of whole-grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and low-fat dairy products," advised Dr Loi.
Examples of legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, soybeans, peanuts amongst many others.