Ask Dr Vincent: Two and a Half Mates

Health Advice That Needs to Die

Dr Vincent — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 20:01:55 GMT

The most convincing health misinformation rarely sounds completely ridiculous. It usually begins with a small piece of truth, then stretches it into a promise the science cannot support. That is how unapproved peptides become shortcuts to the perfect body, 10,000 steps becomes a magical number and carbohydrates become the enemy. Even genuinely useful habits such as fasting, drinking apple cider vinegar or tracking your heart rate can be oversold until they distract us from what actually matters. A faster result is not necessarily a healthier one, especially when the long-term cost is unknown. I would rather build a body that supports my life for decades than chase a physique that looks impressive for a season.

The basics are less exciting, but they continue to work: move regularly, strengthen your muscles, eat a varied diet, hydrate properly, sleep well and be honest about alcohol. Walking is valuable, but it does not replace resistance training. Carbohydrates provide energy, hunger is not proof that fat is melting away and no supplement can compensate for an unhealthy lifestyle. Most importantly, stop using somebody else’s body as the benchmark for your own. The fairest comparison is where you were yesterday, last month or last year. You do not need to be fit before joining a gym, and you do not need to wait for the perfect plan. Today is already the best day available to become healthier.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

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Are we becoming our parents?

Dr Vincent — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 23:22:50 GMT

Becoming a father has made me look at my parents differently. Growing up in a strict Asian household, there was discipline, structure and an expectation to succeed. At times, it felt as though there was little room to make my own choices. Now, as I raise Olivia, I understand more of what sat behind those decisions. My parents were not trying to control my life. They were trying to prepare me for it, using the knowledge and circumstances available to them. They wanted their children to have a better life than they had. They did not get everything right, and neither will I, but parenthood has taught me to judge them with more context, compassion and gratitude.

What I want to pass on to Olivia is passion: the courage to live fully, pursue what matters to her and occasionally colour outside the lines. What I want to end with me is the habit of assigning blame, including the blame I place on myself. I want her to understand that actions have consequences, disappointment does not remove love and failure does not diminish who she is. My role is not to dictate the direction of her life, but to give her strong foundations and the confidence to choose it for herself. If she tells me she wants to fly, I do not want to be the father who reminds her that penguins cannot. I want to be the father who helps her discover how.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

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The Hills I’d Die On

Dr Vincent — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:01:15 GMT

We all have beliefs that have become non-negotiable, shaped by experience rather than theory. Mine begins with kindness. The Kelly Clarkson store controversy reminded me that having a powerful voice also means accepting greater responsibility for how you use it. The Qantas bedbug story reminded me that even deeply unpleasant situations are not always someone’s fault. We rarely know the complete story behind another person’s behaviour, whether it is an overwhelmed shop assistant, a struggling parent or someone simply having the worst day of their life. If I could ask people to do one thing before reacting, judging or sending an angry comment, it would be to pause and leave room for context.

My other hills are less comfortable. Improving your health is supposed to require effort. People rarely change fundamentally, so we must decide whether we can accept them rather than constantly trying to remodel them. Loyalty must travel in both directions, and meaningful friendships deserve an honest conversation before they are abandoned. I also no longer believe that external approval is the measure of a life well lived. I still work hard and aim high, but I try to end each day knowing I gave what I reasonably could without sacrificing my health or my family. My heart can survive disappointment, exhaustion and the occasional failure. The one thing I do not want it carrying is regret.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

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What are we actually chasing?

Dr Vincent — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 09:02:11 GMT

Andrew and I are both business owners, both dads, and both capable of working far too many hours in a day. So in this episode of Two and a Half Mates, I wanted to ask a question that I have increasingly been asking myself: what are we actually chasing? Success? Money? Happiness? Freedom? A better life for our families? We talk about the difference between success and happiness, why experiences can mean more than possessions, the pressure of comparing ourselves to everyone else’s highlight reel, and the strange tension between always wanting more while also learning to want what we already have. For me, it comes back to something I learned when I was young: success is having what you want, but happiness is wanting what you have.

The conversation became especially personal when we talked about fatherhood, ambition and the guilt that can come with trying to build something meaningful while also wanting to be present at home. Neither Andrew nor I thinks the answer is to stop being ambitious. In fact, we both still want to build bigger things, help more people and leave something meaningful behind. But perhaps the answer is to stop occasionally and remember why we started running in the first place. I think of life less as one endless marathon and more as a series of sprints: work hard, reach a milestone, stop, appreciate it, then run again. Because if we are constantly waiting for the next achievement to finally make us happy, we risk missing the life we were working so hard to create.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

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Consistency Over Perfection: Are we actually healthy or are we just pretending?

Dr Vincent — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 22:01:33 GMT

Are we actually healthy, or are we just getting very good at looking healthy? Andrew and I unpack the habits, supplements and expectations that shape modern wellness.

There is no shortage of advice telling us how to be healthier. Meal prep everything. Take creatine. Hit your protein target. Train harder. Sleep eight hours. Avoid processed food. Count your calories. But how much of that advice actually applies to the average person? In this episode, Andrew and I look at some of the things we both do in the name of health and ask whether the science, the marketing and the reality always line up. We get into meal planning, supplements, pre-workout, training safely, portion control and the very real difference between doing something because it is genuinely useful and doing it because everyone on social media says we should.

The conversation also gets much more personal. Andrew runs a fitness studio and I have spent much of my life studying health, yet neither of us pretends to get everything right. We talk openly about sleep, food, alcohol, body image and the pressure to make healthy living look effortless. I share some of my own struggles with weight and my relationship with food because I think the health industry can sometimes make people feel like they are failing when, in reality, this stuff can be hard for everyone. The biggest lesson for me is that health is not about perfection. It is about consistency. It is about making better choices more often, building habits you can actually sustain and remembering that feeling healthier matters far more than simply looking like you have everything figured out.

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Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

Available for iOS and Android

Winning at Work, Failing as Dads?

Dr Vincent — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:00:52 GMT

I had just returned from the United States after travelling 33 hours to Bentonville for my first in-person meeting with Walmart. It was a milestone I had dreamed about for years, yet every achievement came with the same uncomfortable truth: pursuing it meant being away from my daughter. I can now run most of my company from my phone, which means I can work almost anywhere, but it also means work can follow me everywhere. Olivia has started repeating phrases she hears from me, such as “in two minutes,” while Andrew recently heard his daughter say, “Papa’s busy,” even though he was sitting right beside her. Those small moments can cut deeper than any criticism. We work because we want to give our children security, opportunity and a better future, yet sometimes the very work we do for them takes us away from the childhood unfolding in front of us.

In this episode, Andrew and I speak honestly about working-parent guilt, the impossible arithmetic of school holidays and annual leave, the pressure to provide, and the fear that succeeding professionally means falling short at home. I do not believe being a good father requires abandoning ambition or being physically present every minute. Children also need parents who are fulfilled, emotionally healthy and honest about who they are. But they need our attention when we are with them. They need us to put down the phone, communicate, play, say “I love you” and occasionally see the world through their eyes. We will never achieve perfect balance, and many of the pressures parents face are systemic rather than personal failures. What we can do is keep returning to what matters: being present, being patient and allowing ourselves to become a little more childlike again.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

Available for iOS and Android

Work in life balance, is it a thing?

Dr Vincent — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 22:30:20 GMT

In this episode, Andrew and I tackle a question that divided the people I asked almost perfectly down the middle: does work–life balance actually exist? As a scientist, founder, husband and father, I have rarely experienced life as two neatly separated halves. When you love what you do, work can feel deeply fulfilling, but that does not mean it is easy. There are long hours, constant decisions, unexpected fires and unavoidable trade-offs. I have come to believe that balance is not about giving every part of life an equal number of hours. It is about having enough flexibility to respond to what matters most at that moment, without losing sight of why you are doing it all.

Andrew and I also explore the guilt created by rigid routines, why some people become sick the moment they finally go on holiday, and why exercise, sleep and looking after your health are essential parts of creating a sustainable life. My philosophy is simple: consistency beats perfection. You cannot always remove the sources of stress i.e. you cannot simply quit being a parent, abandon your responsibilities or walk away from a business you believe in. But you can strengthen your ability to manage them. Sometimes that means moving a task from Sunday to Monday. Sometimes it means asking your partner, colleague or friend for help. Real balance is not doing everything perfectly; it is building a life whose demands you can sustain and whose purpose you can still enjoy.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

Available for iOS and Android

Are We Getting Old or Just Getting Better?

Dr Vincent — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 23:30:36 GMT

From aching backs and slower recovery to greater confidence, parenthood and knowing what actually matters, Andrew and I ask what “ageing gracefully” really looks like.

Getting older is strange because you rarely notice it happening one day at a time. Then suddenly your friends are celebrating milestone birthdays, a big night out requires a little more planning, recovery takes longer, and things like sleep, mobility and looking after your body start to matter in ways they never did in your twenties. In this episode of Two and a Half Mates, Coach Andrew and I talk about what we imagined life would look like by this age, becoming parents later in life, and the trade-off that comes with getting older: perhaps we don’t bounce back physically quite as quickly, but we have more confidence, perspective and appreciation for where we are.

We also get into the practical side of ageing well: staying active, protecting mobility, prioritising sleep and recovery, managing screen time, understanding that supplements and skincare can’t replace a healthy lifestyle, and finding routines that actually work for the stage of life you’re in. But underneath all of that is a much bigger idea. Ageing isn’t something I think we should be frightened of or constantly try to reverse. Andrew and I both feel more confident and more comfortable with ourselves now than we did when we were younger—and, as we say at the end of the episode, growing older is actually a privilege that not everybody gets. That makes every birthday something worth celebrating.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

Available for iOS and Android

Episode 1 — So… How Did We End Up Here?

Dr Vincent — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 22:01:39 GMT

The introduction without doing a boring “welcome to our podcast” episode.

We start with who we are, what we do and why we decided to put microphones in front of the conversations we were already having. Then we let it drift into where we both are in life right now.

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.

Available for iOS and Android

Two and a half mates

Dr Vincent — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 06:30:30 GMT

Well let us explain! We both are dads, foudners, business owners and MATES!

We find it quite challenging to make time to catch up and have a proper chat, so we decided to commit to doing a podcast instead! Not really scripted, no agenda. Just two mates having real conversations that you happen to be listening to!

We won’t solve all the problems in the world, but hopefully the things we talk about are relatable and since you’re our half mate, feel free to drop in your questions, suggestions or feedback.

We can’t wait to record our first episode next week! We plan to record LIVE on Substack every Thursday and publish the full episode on Saturdays!

Casual chats, real conversations. We’re the two mates: Vincent and Andrew, and you’re the half, listening in.