Racheal Watson - The Biggest Transformation I've Ever Been Up & Close To

Racheal Watson was my next door neighbour. I lived right smack next door to her for about 6 months before I even knew who she was. I met her at a play-centre garage sale and she introduced herself to me as my neighbour. I had never clapped eyes on this woman whose house literally sat above mine. Why not? Because Racheal Watson was perhaps the biggest wall-flower I had ever met. She sunk into the background and worked tirelessly to make herself as inconspicuous as she could. I don’t even think she really knew she was doing it – but she did. Super intelligent, extremely capable and an amazing mother. Dedicated worker with a high-profile job who worked into the wee hours to be the best she could be at work.

One nice calm day, Racheal contacted me and asked if we could do some training together. Little by little I got to know this meek lady and some things stick out more than others. Racheal was seriously full of body hang-ups – she couldn’t bear looking in the gym mirror, she absolutely despised her own body from the waist down, she refused to wear anything that revealed any of her lower  half (remembering we live in a climate that regularly reaches 40 degrees!!), and she had some deal with herself that she would wear dowdy clothes to work in order to be taken seriously. She turned everything about herself into a joke and giggled nervously often. “Holy crap” I thought, “Where do I start”.

Not only that but Racheal didn’t eat. She was too anxious to eat. She went hours and hours without eating a morsel and then would think a full yoghurt pottle was a decent meal. She once said that what I eat in one day would be somewhere near what she eats in a working week. I had to stop my mouth from dropping open in dismay. Let’s just throw food issues into the mix shall we?

Not being a psychologist I decided to go with my own strengths and train the girl! Teach her how to lift weights and complete a bloody good HIIT. I don’t think Rach will mind me sharing that she basically had no strength to start with. She struggled to even lift up an Olympic bar … at all.. not even to move it from one position to another! She also had “Meek Person’s Posture”. You know – when someone wants to fade into the background so much that they round their back so they can stoop just that little bit lower.

Why am I telling you all of this? Easy. Racheal Watson has had the biggest transformation I have ever been involved with. This lady that I have just described – it’s not her anymore. Not in any way, shape or form. And seeing her at the competition you might just not realise how far she has come. Her confidence, her posture, her self-realisation, her strength and her determination – bloody hell – I feel teary just writing this. She is absolutely stunning now. Inside and out. She dresses how she feels nowdays - snappy, snazzy, classy and confident. She has faced huge personal changes and they have amazingly made her a better person, where others might have crumbled. The future is so bright and she knows it.

And Racheal – you deserve to feel this way. You deserve the wolf-whistles and the compliments. You stayed in that shell for way, way too long and my hope is that you never go back there girl!!

I might have started the training, but this transformation was far, far beyond my talents. I knew that Ingrid Barclay had the skills to work with Racheal and not break her like so many would have. I knew there was a lot more to Rach than teaching her how to lift weights. So much more. And Ingrid’s masterful coaching achieved what I believe no one else could have. Long may the relationship continue.

 

 

When was your first comp?

May 10, 2014

What comps have you done?

Just this one.

3^rd Place – Geelong Conquest Classic – Bikini division 

Biggest inspirations

A few months ago I would have listed other people here- I would have told you how much I loved watching others go on the competition journey especially you Kirsten, but now I have to say that I have learnt my inspiration needs to come from within me. This sport is so much about you and how your see yourself and where/who you want to be and you get there by being in a constant competition with yourself. So if you can't find inspiration from within yourself you will never feel good enough and you will never be confident enough to get on the stage and compete with yourself.

Competition Day; Was there things that you saw/heard that shocked you?

Comp day for me was a massive surprise and challenge on so many levels. As someone who considers herself a bit shy and a bit of a prude, just being around so much nakedness was a huge thing!

I was not prepared for the mental games back stage - the way that the overbearing confidence of others would play on my own insecurities and make me wonder what the heck I was doing there!

I was also shocked of the stories back stage people were telling in terms of their journey to stage - hearing some people talking about their prep and things like taking shots of vodka back stage or the fact that they had been pigging out on crap the whole time (ok maybe they said a cheat meal a week- but I heard the whole time), but still managed to come in leaner than me.

I think comp day also made me realise just how unprepared I was. I needed to do more work to get mentally ready for the backstage experience and needed to spend more time immersed in the sport so I had a clue as to how things worked!  

That sounds like a huge learning curve. Taking it all into account, was it an experience you would like to repeat?

Absolutely! Although I was terrified (and you could really see that all over my face on stage), I loved it! But next time I will be better prepared.  

Prep - tell us anything really interesting about your prep?

I didn't enjoy my prep much- and I wish I had! I loved the training and never had any issues getting that done- except dreaded HIITS (High Intensity Interval Training)- hate those with a passion!  

The way my body responded to prep was a real surprise to me- I expected that over time as my food decreased the fat would just come off- it didn't... And this was not an easy thing to deal with!  

So I guess the burning question is this – you looked fantastic on comp day so something must have worked in the end. What was it?

The high, low and medium days. For some reason these tricked my body and sped my metabolism up. I ended up losing about 1.5kg on my first week of the high/low micro. I also changed my mindset re the hiits. I constantly told myself during them that my competitors were not slacking off, in fact I used to say to myself things like, “She didn't quit- she didn't slack off. Are you a quitter??”

What was a typical day of food in the last month?

For me the last month of food was not typical at all. I was on 3 different daily food plans within a given week- a high carb day, a low carb day and a medium carb day. The low days made me cry.

What was your training like up to comp?

My training was 5 weight sessions, 1 steady state cardio and 2 hiits. Sometimes it was hard to get it all in! I struggled with the mental challenge of dropping weights back due to fatigue - and this was something I just had to get over!

What things did you hate most?
Like most - the concoction I had to drink in the morning! Apple cider vinegar and chlorophyll!! Made me gag every day! I also hated the need to drink so much water- I always struggled with it! Oh and hiits - I hated the hiits! 

 

How much water did you struggle with and what strategies did you use to get it in?

As for water I struggle with anything over 3 litres. I was on 6 litres in the end. I started setting goals to get it in, like before I left the house I had to drink so much. Or I bribed myself- “you can't have another coffee till you drink x amount of water”. I also started drinking it warmed up. It’s cold here and instead of a coffee, if I was behind on my water, I would have a cup of boiled water. I actually really enjoyed that! I also found it easier at the end when I wasn't allowed to have any supps in my workout water- as I drink about a litre a session so that helped.

 

I am back on 3l a water a day now- and I am struggling with that- but you really just have to do it!

How did your family cope?

My kids are too little to really understand much of what was going on however, when I look outside and see Jack doing push-ups and ask him what he is doing and he says “exercising like you mummy cause I want to be strong” - I know that it has affected them in a positive way despite the fact I may have been a cranky mummy every now and then.

I would say the rest of my family and friends just didn't understand. I often had people say, “when you eat normal again” - why does the normal have to be cake? People also don't understand that this is how I want to live my life now.

Tell us about any guilt associated with prepping/comping?

I felt guilt all the time! It is an expensive sport. I felt bad that I spent so much money on it, but now recognise I don't go out drinking, eating out etc so it evens out.

The training time was never something I felt guilty about as it was my ‘me’ time. However, when my willpower was down and I had to make my kids miss out on things like going out for our weekly baby chino cause I didn't have the will power to look at the cheesecake and not eat it I felt guilt. I also felt guilt when I was out with people or at someone's house and I would not eat the food put in front of me- now I know that is stupid- but at the time it was a consuming guilt. And of couse towards the end when I was tired and a little cranky I felt guilty every time I snapped at someone! 

Rach - if you are comfortable, can you elaborate on your prep and at times, taking one step forward and two back before finally conquering the fat loss. 

Fat loss certainly didn't come easy for me! And at the time I just got frustrated and wanted to give up. However on reflection I can see a few things I did contributed to that. I probably didn't start from the best place in terms of body fat percentage, and sometimes my hiits were a little average - I could have given more!

My fat loss started well and I dropped 1-1.5kgs for the first couple of weeks. Then it stalled and I started to drop only 200g a week, and then it stopped completely. I panicked and stressed about it, cried a LOT and leant on my dear friends, and then my coach completely changed my micros. I went onto the high, medium and low days. High days saw me eating mayo and bread and fruit! Low days saw me have meals that were pretty small, and medium days saw me eat a bowl of pasta at 9pm. My body responded and started dropping fat. My mind struggled a little - on low days I was hungry and training was a nightmare as I had no energy. High days were like Christmas! 

My prep was also 20 weeks- this was far too much for me and this time round I am working on starting from a better place!  

Only if you are comfortable, can you talk about what it was like not to end up with the perfect physique on comp day that you had in your head?
This almost made me not get on stage!! The one part of my body (my legs) that I have never been happy with didn't lean down as I had hoped. I know now this is now in part because I started with too much work to do there! But mentally you could see all over my face on comp day that I didn't think I belonged there. It was evident in my posing and stage presence too! It also meant that back stage I was almost on the verge of tears the whole time, despite my best efforts to hide it! I think when you have an image in your head of what you want to be and you don't get there you feel failure... Well I did... But I now recognise the importance of the journey and the growth I did on the inside. This was far greater than the physical changes I made, and slowly I am working to change my self-perception of my body.

Racheal Watson, your journey was amazing emotional – more than most could ever understand – and you trusted all of these highs and lows to someone who I believe is the best person in Australia when it comes to nutrition, training and competition preparation. Tell me about your experience in the hands of Ingrid Barclay?

A huge part of this journey for me was working with a coach like Ingrid. I will never forget the first phone conversation with her where I asked her if she would be my coach (at this point I was still slightly nervous around Ingrid!)... She let me know in no uncertain terms that the journey would not be an easy one but that she would help me get there- I knew then that she was the coach for me. She worked with my fussy food choices and never gave up on me no matter how many times I almost gave up on myself! My training program was specific for me and modified along the way to work on areas that required more work- aka my legs! She continued to make me accountable by getting me to complete accountability charts but also let me be me. Knowing I didn't like talking on the phone she would let me communicate via text or email. However, at times when I hit rock bottom and thought it was all too hard, she would call and put things into perspective for me!

 

When I finally saw her at the comp in Geelong she didn't recognise me because of the transformation I had made inside and out. Her kind words at that point were so valuable to me and words I will not share but will never forget!! On comp day she could see I wanted more and we started a plan within a week to get me there- more exciting things to come for me and my awesome coach in 2014!

 

And muscles chicks rock!! Best support family ever!

 

We think you rock too Racheal! Amazing part of our little team. xxx