There are many reasons why one would want to lead an active lifestyle. Most of us want to improve our health, but there can be other motivations as well, especially personal ones. For English lecturer Ahmad Faizul, his reason is simple: “I do it for my family,” says the 40-year-old.

Ahmad used to weigh 120kg and wasn’t keen on exercise at all. However, because of his family, especially his children, he came to realise the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle, which is why he decided it was time to lose the extra weight.

Unfortunately, his initial attempt to do so was met with not only disappointment, but came at a risk as well. “I tried a weight loss programme. It was effective because I lost the weight – but in a bad way. I completely cut out carbs, I did not have a balanced diet nor did I exercise. It definitely had a negative effect on my health,” shares Ahmad.

As a result of that, he’s more careful and conscious about staying healthy the right way. An effective method, says Ahmad, has been joining the AIA Vitality programme since mid-2016. The programme has a unique feature known as the AIA Vitality Age, which measures how healthy a person is relative to their real age. “When I first started, my Vitality Age was 43 years old – that’s four years older than my actual age!” he says.

Determined to make a change for the better, Ahmad started exercising more. He runs regularly and watches what he eats. “As the saying goes, we should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper, which is what I live by now,” says Ahmad.

This has definitely worked out for Ahmad, who since starting the programme has lost 30kg! Also, he recently did a reassessment of his Vitality Age, which is now 42 years old, a year younger than what Ahmad really is.

The road to better health doesn’t end here for him though – his target weight is 70kg, which is within a healthy range for his Body Mass Index (BMI). To help track his goal, Ahmad constantly refers to the AIA Vitality programme to measure his progress.

“This is one of the reasons why I use the AIA Vitality app frequently… so that I can track my BMI and also my daily steps. My priority is to focus on my goals and my achievements. The programme offers rewards too, even if I don’t redeem them, it makes me feel good to know that I’ve earned them! I am currently at Gold status and I want to achieve Platinum as well as meet my weight target at 70kg,” says Ahmad.

“At my recent birthday, my son wished me a long and healthy life. This really got me thinking about my family, my children. It made me realise that this is my why to be healthy – so that I can be here for them,” he said reflectively.