I am not a health expert. I am just someone who did not want to die at 55.
I am Vince. I am 49 years old, based in Malaysia, and I spend most of my working life as an event photographer — which sounds active, but mostly means sitting at a computer until 2am editing photos and surviving on takeaway food.
I have Type 2 diabetes. I survived a stroke in November 2024. I have a small tumour sitting next to a nerve in my brain that we monitor every year. I have bad knees, bad shoulders, and the posture of someone who has carried heavy camera equipment for more than a decade.
None of that is why I started this site.
I started it because the resources I needed — honest, practical, written by someone who had actually lived through these conditions — simply did not exist. Everything I found was either written by people who had never experienced what they were describing, or buried in clinical language that required a medical degree to parse.
So I started figuring things out myself. And writing down what worked.
Where I started
At my worst, I weighed around 95 to 98 kilograms. My blood pressure was difficult to control even on medication. My blood sugar was consistently out of range. I slept 2 to 4 hours a night because I was editing photos late into the night and still waking early to send my sons to school.
I loved fried food. I loved fast food. I loved supper at midnight. And I was completely reliant on medication to manage everything, making zero lifestyle changes, because I was too lazy and too attached to my food to change anything.
That is not an exaggeration. That was genuinely my position.
The thing that changed without me trying
Around age 43, something strange happened. I stopped craving the things I had always loved. Not through willpower — I did not decide to change. My taste palette simply shifted on its own.
I started genuinely enjoying food I had always disliked. Malaysian soup dishes. Salads. Fruit. I still loved fried chicken but I ate it less often and in smaller amounts without feeling like I was depriving myself of anything.
I only noticed something had changed when my trousers started falling off. I had not weighed myself, had not tracked anything, had not been trying. But I had lost around 8 to 10 kilograms.
That was the beginning. Not a decision. An accident.
Intermittent fasting — also an accident
I did not start intermittent fasting because I read about it. I started because I was too tired after editing sessions to eat breakfast. I just stopped eating until noon. Then I pushed it further, from 12:12 to 16:8, mostly because it was convenient.
Combined with the taste shift, I came down from around 95 kilograms to around 80 over the following years.
It was slow. It was not dramatic. But it held.
The gym, and then the stroke
In September 2023, at 80 kilograms and 47 years old, I went back to the gym for the first time in more than a decade. I hated cardio. I still do. I did it anyway — low intensity, short sessions, nothing heroic.
For a full year, the scale barely moved. But my body composition changed. My clothes fit differently. My strength improved. I was doing the right thing even though the number on the scale refused to confirm it.
Then, on 26 November 2024, I had a stroke.
I had fallen asleep after editing. I woke up and my left side was not working properly. I tested myself — I had read about the FAST method — and I passed all four checks. No facial drooping. No speech issues. Both arms raised without obvious drift. So I waited.
The symptoms eased for about ten minutes. Then they came back. I went to hospital.
It was a lacunar stroke. Small, but real — not a TIA. The scans also found a 3mm benign-appearing tumour adjacent to the trigeminal nerve, which nobody had known was there. That was an unexpected discovery I have carried with me since.
I spent three days in the ICU. I came home walking at about 70 percent function on my left side. I was back at the gym one month later.
What the stroke taught me
The fourteen months I had spent in the gym before the stroke did not prevent it. But I believe — genuinely believe — that it reduced how bad it was. The recovery I experienced in the first weeks was faster than many stroke patients manage. The physiotherapist mentioned it.
The body compounds. Small improvements over years build a base you cannot see until you need it.
I am now at 70 to 71 kilograms — down approximately 25 to 28 kilograms from my peak. My blood pressure is in normal range without medication, managed entirely through lifestyle. My blood sugar is better controlled. I still take statin for cholesterol. I still monitor the tumour annually. I do physio twice a week and gym twice a week, and I skip the gym without guilt whenever my blood pressure reads too high on the day.
I am still lazy. I still love food. I have just made changes a lazy person who loves food can actually sustain.
Why AimingToThrive exists
I am not going to tell you I found the answer. There is no answer — just a collection of things that worked for a specific person in a specific situation, shared honestly in the hope that some of them work for you too.
Every guide I publish here is written from real experience. Not from research alone — though I read the research. From actually doing it. From managing diabetes while fasting, monitoring blood sugar, adjusting medication timing, surviving a stroke and rebuilding from it.
Just honest writing, practical information, and the same approach I use myself: small changes, done consistently, for a long time.
If you are managing a health condition and looking for guidance from someone who has lived it — you are in the right place.
— Vince
What you will find here
The guides and printables in this shop cover the specific areas I have personal experience in — intermittent fasting for Type 2 diabetes, blood sugar management, light and heat therapy for recovery and metabolic health, sustainable weight loss without willpower, and getting back to exercise after a serious health event.
Each one is written the way I wish someone had written it for me.