TPP Private Members - Jonathan Kyle Hotseat

Jonathan Kyle, a member of the private members podcast within the progress project, shares his journey. He discusses his background, including his job in banking and finance, his training history, and his struggles with health and fitness. Jonathan talks about his experience with a serious bowel condition and how it affected his weight and mindset. He then explains how he slowly got back into fitness through running and eventually found CrossFit. He discusses the challenges of balancing fitness with a busy schedule and the importance of having structure and guidance. Jonathan joined the program to simplify his fitness journey and remove the guesswork. Since joining, he has made changes to his nutrition, eliminating fast food and takeaways, and has found inspiration from others in the program. Overall, he has been committed and has seen progress in his fitness journey. Hello and welcome to the next episode of the private members podcast within the progress project. Today, we have a very special episode because we have fellow member Jonathan Kyle on. I will chat a bit about his journey. Jonathan has been on a mission since he joined. He has been absolutely flying from the moment he started. The progress that we are seeing is excellent. We have big goals set for 2024. Jonathan has a lot of value to offer in terms of how he goes about his day, his week, how he manages time with a young daughter, a busy job and how he embodied everything inside the progress project. We are going to dive into it and have a good conversation with Jonathan just now. Hi, Jonathan. How are you doing? Hello. Good. Thanks for having me on. I'm getting a bit of an insight behind the scenes here. No pressure when you say that I've got a lot of things, a lot of value to add. We'll see how that goes. It's good to be here. Excellent. How we normally start any kind of hot seat or guests in the podcast is really just a bit of an intro to you, mate, in terms of where you were at, how things were going before the progress project, what your training history, what your goals are. Just an intro in terms of where you are at the moment. Yes, sure. As I mentioned at the start, I have a wife and a two-year-old daughter. We live in Strathven. We are, I would say, very normal, just juggling all the usual things that young families are juggling with. We moved here about two years ago to take on massive mortgage and all the stresses that go with that. As for my background, I work in banking and finance for NatWest and have done since I graduated. It's a sort of office-based job now, working from home for me. My wife has just started up her business, and then we struggle with childcare. As I say, it's just juggling a lot of things and quite busy all the time, as you mentioned as well. As for training history, that goes way back. I've always been into sports. When I was a kid, I did loads of different sports. I never really stuck at anything, but most young boys played a lot of football when I was younger. I chucked that midway through school. At school, I loved PE and took it very far, because I was always told that I had to do maths, physics and whatever to go to uni and graduate. That served me well, but maybe that wasn't the right thing necessarily for me to do, because I didn't follow what I enjoyed. I liked sports from a young age. I started going to the John Wright's gym in East Kilbride when I was 16 or so. I think just as soon as I could get a membership to go, I started going there and absolutely loved it. That was the best method of sports or health fitness that I enjoyed most from everything that I'd tried to that point. I got right into that and started reading all the magazines, joining all the online forums and pulling programmes from all of them. That was really great, but I suppose it also had its negatives. At quite a young age, I started to really focus on my own appearance and how I looked. I started to pick holes in things and became really self-aware that I was always really skinny. When I went to the gym, I had never really been aware of it, even playing football and stuff. That was never something that bothered me, but then that started to develop that negative mindset towards that. I was on this path from 16 to, I don't know, probably very recently, of just trying to always gain weight. That's always been that struggle through the gym. That culminated. For me, when I turned 23 shortly after I was 23, I got rushed into hospital with quite a serious bowel condition. I completely came out of nowhere. I was at the office one day and I didn't feel well. I had a sore stomach. Before I knew it, I was in intensive care for three weeks. I spent the best part of a couple of months in hospital, completely sidelined. That was a culmination of diet and developing a really bad relationship with food. It was quite eye-opening for me at quite a young age. I had just graduated. That was my first job, straight out of uni. I was only three months into it, and then off for the best part of six months. I came out of that, and I remember weighing myself when I got home from hospital and I was eight stone ten. I was 23 years old. Everything that I had gained over that seven-year period was all gone. I had this health problem to try and deal with. I was sidelined until about 2015. I could not do anything for quite a long time. In 2015, I got the all-clear to start running—very gentle running. It was a couch to 10k, two-minute run, two-minute walk, and just building that up slowly. That is how I got back into things. Gradually, I tried to build myself back up from there. I kept doing that. One of the best things that I ever did—I do not know why I did it—was that I went into CrossFit Glasgow at the end of 2016, so about two years after getting back on my feet. At that time, CrossFit Glasgow was quite an intimidating place. All the barbells were flung around and there were loud noises and everything like that, and people were topped off. For some reason, I was walking past it one day and just walked in and said, what is this all about? I need a bit of help, because I do not know how to get myself going again. That was the best thing I did. I did CrossFit right up until Covid. I started to build a garage gym in the house that we stayed at at the time. I had a single garage and bought a bar and was doing whatever I could, just a bar and some weights. That has escalated rapidly. Thankfully, I had that through Covid, so I still managed to do a little bit in Covid. Then, in 2021, my daughter was born. I have nothing but sidelines for that, to be honest. I really struggled with how to manage my time through that process. I found that quite tough, because I am quite a selfish person. I quite like my own time and like doing my own thing. That was all gone. Even though I had a garage gym there, I was not using it. Again, I was in quite a bad place with health and fitness. I had a perfect draft machine and I was smashing pints all through that summer. It just was not good. We then moved house after that as well. I think my daughter was about a year old. We moved house to a new building. There were loads of problems with the new building. Training again just was not happening for me. It was not until 2023 that I set a new year's resolution to say, I am just going to show up. I am just going to be consistent. I have got that garage there. I am just going to get in there four times a week and just see what happens. I did the half marathon last year and came out of the half marathon. I was just so stuck with what I was supposed to be doing, getting crossed between doing weights, trying to gain weight back again. I also enjoyed the running. How do I balance all of this? I was messing myself up mentally, just trying to think about it all. That is when I reached out to you and said, I just need someone to make this all simpler. Just put the boxes in front of me and let me tick them. That is what I want to achieve. Just tell me how to do it. As I said, that is what led me to come to you in October and November time last year. Brilliant, mate. That is excellent. I did not even realise that, in terms of the operation and the sideline that you had to go through, which is crazy. It has been a journey since then, mate. You have obviously got a lot of experience there on various things with regards to the gym. Some people might go, why did you come on to the programme? You outlined it there. Was it just because it was a case of, we have managed to build back into things a bit, but it was more about having that structure and removing the guesswork for you in terms of, give me that structure, give me something to follow and tick off? That was it. I know what I am doing with workouts. I can put a workout together myself from past experience and doing the CrossFit stuff. I know how to calculate macros and work out roughly what my baseline is supposed to be. I did know all that sort of stuff, but I was still second-guessing it so much. When you do it yourself, you are like, is that the right calories? Then there is also trying to define what your goals are and not flitting between one thing to the next. The biggest thing for me was just getting a lot of headspace by letting you guys take care of it. That is a big thing for a lot of members of the programme when we relate to that. When you are really busy with career, kids or just life taking over, having that guesswork removed, an extra stress on your plate that can get taken away, what you think about, you can trust the process and get it ticked off. That is massive. As I mentioned at the start of the programme, you have taken it like a duck to water and been flying since you have come on. What was the biggest change that you have made since you have come on in terms of your habits, your training style and your nutrition? Have there been any main changes that you have made that you feel are working really well? I would not say that there has been anything massively significant. I would say that a lot of things have just tidied up. You join a programme like that and fork out a bit of money up front and that is a big commitment right away. You want to start taking it seriously. I used to sneak in the odd McDonald's and takeaway. I say odd, but it was probably if I tracked it way more frequently than I thought. I would always say, well, as long as I have protein, it does not matter. I gain a bit of weight anyway. All of that stuff immediately stopped overnight. I am paying for this, let's take it seriously. The boxes are laid out in front of me, just pick them. I took a lot of inspiration from myself, Raymond and the guys in the programme. I have seen the silly things, like people getting up crazy early to do workouts and the challenges that everybody else is facing. I was like, hold on a minute, I am not doing enough. I have been kind of just coasting and I need to show up. That is all it was. It was maybe more of a mindset shift than anything. I did not really drastically change diet, I did not drastically change training or anything like that, but definitely mindset and discipline, just keep tightening the boxes. Yeah, mate, I think just tightening, because you are somebody who has come in already in a good spot. It was not as if you were not training for years, you are very overweight, you are really struggling. You went in that position, you were in a position where you were in a good spot, but what you have done and what it has allowed you to do is really tighten things up. Take everything from a decent level to a great level, and now we are really operating phenomenally well, with really great morning routines and habits in place. What sort of results and how have you felt since you have really tightened everything up? What would you say have been the biggest benefits and changes that you have seen so far? I have probably still just done that mindset confidence type thing. I have not set any new crazy PBs. They are a long way off for me, a lot of PBs and things, and also just getting my age. We see all these crazy before and after pictures online. There is nothing like that, but for me, it is just self-confidence or self-assurance. The crazy thing for me, and this is mad and maybe people will not relate to it, but the biggest thing I have got out of the programme so far was doing the noisy November challenge, which was bizarre. That is not my bag at all. I remember when I had the on-boarding call with you, talking about the community aspect of all this, and I was just like, yes, mate, I am abondoned with that. I just want to do my workouts and eat what I have to eat and crack on. That noisy November challenge came round on the very first day of November, when I was going out into the ice bath. I had been doing that for a long time anyway, and I was like, I will just take a picture and tag that eggs and blankets thing. From that, one of my mates from uni, whom I had not spoken to in years, just messaged me out of the blue and was like, how is it going? It just triggered a conversation, which I did the next day. Long story short, I just snowballed through the amount of comments that I got from people whom I had not spoken to. My best pal was on Instagram saying, oh, good for you, mate. You have inspired me to go out for a run today, yada, yada, yada, all that sort of stuff. I don't know, it just kind of switched a lightbulb on in my head, and I just became a lot more, I don't want to say confident, because I think that sometimes that comes across as cocky, but it was just like I got a bit of self-assurance that I was doing the right things. If anyone is on Instagram now, I am getting absolutely ripped for it from my mates, but I have never posted anything like that before. I don't know where that has come from, but ultimately it was from joining the programme and doing that challenge. To anybody else who sees the challenges coming up and thinks, oh, that's not for me, give it a go and see what happens, see what comes of it. Yeah, definitely, mate. From you looking in, you maybe don't want to sound cocky or whatever, but from tightening everything up, not only have I seen a big increase in confidence, as you mentioned, if anybody doesn't follow Jonathan's Instagram page, make sure to follow it. I'll put it in the comments again. I've shared it before, but I'll put it in the comments again, because Jonathan has documented his journey. Lots of good value coming out from his page as well, which is great, so make sure to give that a follow, but not only confidence in that front, mate, but we're really seeing things tighten up with the physique now, which is brilliant. As I said, you were in good shape to begin with, but we're really seeing that physique now develop into phenomenal, and we've tightened things up again around nutrition. You're feeling better with that. You're managing nutrition better. I know over the weekend there, you said you're really just a lot better managing. You've had a couple of beers, you had a meal out, and you're just managing everything. For me, it seems like a boost in confidence, and also I've lost a lot more control and just relaxed with it all, mate, in terms of where you're going and what you're doing. It's been brilliant to see. Any lessons since you've come on that you're thinking, like, actually, yeah, let's do that? Is it around the confidence piece and getting out your comfort zone and doing stuff like that, or has there been any lessons since you've come on? Yeah, getting out your comfort zone. If you're in for a penny, in for a pound. You've signed up for this, so get involved in every aspect of it, and who knows, like I say, what you might uncover from it. I think I've learned as well that the process just takes longer than everybody thinks it does. You always want that kind of quick result and think, like, oh, I'll join a six-week programme or a 12-week programme and see these crazy before and after pictures. It takes longer. You just have to be patient and just keep showing up, like you say. I do see big differences in the pictures and confidence. You mentioned it there. I've become a lot more relaxed about everything to do with my health and fitness journey now. I can manage everything a lot better, but it's just being comfortable with the fact that it just takes a bit of time, and just being consistent. That's all it is for me. Yeah, definitely making a couple of points on that. A lot of people do come into the programme and initially they're like, oh, yeah, the community stuff's fine. I just want to focus on my own performance, and I say, yeah, definitely. Your main goal inside the programme is your own progress, but getting involved in the community stuff, surrounding yourself with other people, pushing towards similar goals, that will increase your progress. That will increase the rate of your progress. That's why we're really big inside the progress project with the community stuff, why we're doing more meet-ups, why we're doing these challenges. Other people in the group are inspiring other people, and we're lifting each other up as a group. Definitely getting involved in that is something that I know at the start you weren't too bothered about, but now you've really embraced that and seen the benefits. Also, just in terms of things taking a wee bit longer, yeah, we were just talking before we came on here just about how quick time just goes by. If you do want to achieve the results in a sustainable way that you absolutely do enjoy, that you can still spend time with your family and go out for a coffee and a brownie or whatever after a run and stuff like that, you do need to accept that it will take a bit longer, but you're going to be doing it the proper way. It's not like a six-week fad diet challenge that then, as soon as you stop, you put it on three stone. It's a sustainable way that we're going to be actually making lifelong progress, which would be brilliant. Talking of that, what are the current goals at the moment for anybody that doesn't know? What's our biggest focus right now, and then also beyond that, into 2024? I still find it weird to talk about the biggest focus now is the photo shoot, which, again, if you'd spoken to me about a photo shoot back in November, I'd have just laughed and thought, that's ridiculous. Why would you do that? There's no way I could do that, that sort of thing. It still does terrify me, but I'm just working as hard as I can towards that and always a focus towards that in April. Just following the plan, tightening up the diet as much as I can, but I still want to go for a meal with pals and have a beer when I want, so just managing that process. After that, I said I'm going to do the half-marathon in Glasgow in October time again. I did that last year, the first time I've ever done a running event. I didn't quite get the time I wanted. No time is anything crazy. Some of the people are doing it in the programme, but I do want to do that again. It's a bit of an unfinished business with that, but the big challenge there is going to be managing the running and the physique. I don't want to undo all the good work that I've done for the last however long. It'll be six months by the time the photo shoot comes around. I don't want to just go and track all my running and not be mindful of that, so getting that balance right is going to be hard. Then, employing this idea, because I'm really enjoying the weightlifting side of things—we've not spoken about this yet—is to push for some big powerlifting goals alongside that running in the last six months of the year. I want to put it out there, but I'll see how we go. A two times body weight squat, a two and a half times deadlift and a 1.5 times body weight bench press. I want to try and do that and run the half-marathon inside the same six-month period. Those are the things that don't commonly go together, but that's what I want to try and achieve. Amazing, mate. There are some big goals coming up. We've seen nowadays that you can be strong and still run. It's been proven now that, if we do it correctly, we can still do it. We can definitely achieve that, but hitting those numbers while getting a good half-marathon time is going to be tough. It's exciting, but first and foremost, I'm very excited to see the condition we're going to bring to that. We're already in a great place. We have nine and a half weeks to go, so I'm really looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to seeing you continue to document your journey as well. I'm looking forward to the photoshoot big time. It sounds weird, but I'm looking forward to getting right into the depths of being hard. I want it to be hard so that you can learn from it and get to the other side of it and feel like you've really accomplished something. The photoshoot, as I said, is a strange one. My wife is like, why are you doing this? It's stupid. It's vain. You look fine as you are. The way I think about it is that it's no different to someone going and running a marathon. It's still a mental and physical challenge and something you always look back on through your life and say, well, I did that. I'm approaching it like that to see where it takes me, see what I learn from it and see how I grow from that process. That's my rationale for doing it, rather than it being like, oh, look at me. I'm definitely not that type of person. Yeah, definitely. That's a good message to go there. We've got lots of guys in the programme doing the photoshoot who, if I asked them 12 months ago, would never have done a photoshoot, but I think it is looking at it like that. My wife was the same the first time I did the photoshoot. She was like, I don't like when you get that lean or whatever. What I was trying to say is, I'm not going to be like that forever. If you don't like it, I'm not going to be like that forever. It's not like you get to a marathon and you run a marathon every day. It's like you do the marathon and then you feel things back a bit. It's the same with a photoshoot. When you get into the end of a photoshoot, it's not a sustainable way to live. Also, how lean you get and the condition you get into is probably not a sustainable way to maintain. Yeah, well, put on a wee bit of weight after it and that's good. It's just about knowing that it is a challenge. It's a temporary thing. It's really just to push and see the limits that you can get yourself to. Not only will you get a pride and achievement from it, great photos, but the habits and the challenges and the discipline and everything like that leading up to it is going to help you get into other areas of your life as well. That's it. Yeah, that's exactly it. That's how I'm approaching it. Yeah, looking forward to it. I never thought I would say six months. Everybody that's done it has said the exact same thing. It's going to be a great day. I'm looking forward to that. Finally, what would be your biggest piece of advice to any other members in the programme? It doesn't need to be about the programme project. It's just about helping fit this mindset in general. What would be your biggest piece of advice to anybody in order to help them make progress? I don't know. Honestly, I don't feel like I'm worthy of giving people on here advice. Everybody on here, as I've joined, I've been blown away by how much people are smashing it. You've got folk going to pure gym at five in the morning and people running marathons on their weekends with kids and juggling and everything else. I'm just showing up doing a few workouts a week in my garage. There's people smashing it with you on me. I take a lot of inspiration from those people, but I suppose the only advice I would have is just keep doing what you're doing. You're in the right place where you're supposed to be. If you stick at it, you'll get to where you want to be. As I say, I find it mental what people are achieving on a day-to-day basis, and that keeps me going. If I feel like I can't be bothered going from my desk upstairs to the gym downstairs, then I'm a joke, because there's people doing way harder than me, so just keep doing what you're doing. Again, I wouldn't be so hard on yourself, because you are leading by example with what you're doing every week, getting in that ice bath every single day without fail. You posted your typical day of eating, which is spot on. You're eating really well, and you're training really hard as well. We're never missing a session. We're ticking every box, so definitely don't be so hard on yourself. You're absolutely smashing it right now, which is why you're on this podcast as well, to talk about your journey, what's worked really well for you just now and everything like that. It's been really valuable talking to you, mate. I think there's been an excellent chat, and I don't know if there's anything else before we finish up. Is there anything else you want to add in, or are you all good? No, I don't think so. I've probably talked far too much and bored people to tears, but thanks very much, just to you and Raymond, for everything that you're doing behind the scenes and with the community. It's been great since I've joined, and I'm really enjoying it, so thanks for that. Amazing, Jonathan, mate. Thanks very much. I'm looking forward to getting this episode out there, and I'm sure that everybody is going to really take some value from it. Everybody, when you do get a chance to listen to this, comment below with any questions for Jonathan or any comments or anything you want to ask. Just get that commented below. I'm looking forward to sharing this one. Jonathan, cheers for that, mate. Thanks very much. Cheers, guys.