Determined not to let COVID-19 knock him down, Terry Kinloch started his own company and kicked ass in the gym

2020 was a  tough year for all of us. We were cooped up inside, we lost loved ones, and many also became unemployed. One such person was architect Terry Kinloch. ‘Life seemed to slow down a bit as working from home became the norm. But, shortly after we went into Level 5 lockdown, I received an email saying I was losing my job as the company could no longer sustain salaries because of the global pandemic,’ he explains. Long hours and late nights had led to a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating, and now Terry had to scramble to put his life back together. ‘This was tough. I have a wife and two kids to support, and now I’m unemployed. So I decided to pick myself up and start my own company,’ he says. And soon, he had his first project. Even though he had managed to revive his career, Terry still had to endure the long hours and stress that go into starting a company from the ground up. And it took a little while before he decided it was time to transform his lifestyle too.

What Was Your Breaking Moment?
Even with my career on track, my unhealthy habits continued for the next year until I saw myself in the mirror one morning and didn’t like what I had become. That was on 1 April 2021; I weighed 120 kg on the scale that morning –the heaviest I have ever been in my life. That morning, I realised my mental health had become a problem too.I was eating my stress and unhappiness. It was a profound moment and suddenly I decided I wanted better for myself, for my wife and my kids. 

How have you since made fitness a part of your life?
Firstly, I make sure the food I put into my body will benefit me with regards to the exerciseI have planned for the day. I listen to my body; when I feel I need to rest I will do a light session of weights or cardio, or just stretch, but I’m in my home gym every day looking after my body. This was vital to my transformation and was an investment in my future. I looked at what a gym subscription would cost per year and bought my own equipment. Basic stuff, but my collection has since grown. The great thing about this was I had no excuse to get it done every morning. I didn’t have to get in the car and drive to the gym and be away from my family. I just walked outside and got it done. This is still my routine every morning. I also recently joined Koshin CrossFit to surround myself with good, friendly people who are passionate about health and fitness. Just by being around like-minded people I am more motivated to better myself. 

How did you manage your relationship with food?
I became a student of food and nutrition. Instead of looking for someone to tell me how to diet, I watched YouTube videos, read nutrition journals, learnt to cook healthy meals, and started tracking what I was eating, not just calories but macros too. I made mistakes at the start but got better at it as time went on. I started using a flexible dieting method working on staying under 2 500 calories per day and making sure I got 1 g of protein per cm of my body height. I started looking at food as fuel rather than stress relief, and tried to eat as much as possible while still slowly chipping away at the weight. I moved towards single-ingredient foods and away from processed store-bought snacks, and instead started growing my own vegetables. We even got two chickens to get fresh eggs every day. What truly made a difference is that food and nutrition became something fun for me and my family.

What has been your drive throughout this process?
Progress is what motivates me. Practise doesn’t make perfect, it makes progress. I wouldn’t set goals that had end dates. Rather,I set fitness waypoints to work towards. Once I could do that skill or lift that weight, I would set another or many others and work towards achieving them. By using this method I never find an endpoint where I can say ‘I’m done’, put my feet up and eat a pizza and slide back into old habits. I’m always striving towards the next waypoint. Another habit that helped me keep going is taking progress pictures. This motivated me by showing me what was happening to my body physically and the new shape it was taking. Through this I realised that pushing myself physically was helping me to heal mentally. There is something about pushing yourself physically that breaks down barriers mentally and emotionally, and this process did that.

HIS STATS
Age: 33
Based: Durban
Occupation: Senior Architectural Technologist
Height: 1.82 m
Weight Before: 120 kg
Weight After:85  kg
Transformation:1 year

Photography: Courtesy Images