A 40-year-old mum-of-two who had been battling with her weight since she was just eight years old, has revealed her secret after undergoing an incredible transformation.
Rachel Williams tried everything including every diet known, in order to try and lose weight until she gained a figure she was happy with.
As she was approaching her 40th birthday she hated her body image so much that she refused to get photos taken with her two children.
It was then she knew something drastically had to change. Rachel realised she had to face her own fears, and address the way she spoke to herself, to THINK herself to a healthier lifestyle. Incredibly, it became the spur for Rachel to finally tackle her weight.
Since July 2019, the 41-year-old has lost seven stone - dropping from 16st 5lbs to 9st 5lbs and for the first time in her life has kept the weight off too. She now credits becoming mindful and “counting chemicals, not calories” with her slim physique.
Rachel, who lives in Henbury in Cheshire with husband Anton and their two children, Sofia, 8 and Solomon, 2, knows exactly how it feels to have tried seemingly everything to tackle her weight - and so is now determined to try and help others.
Since losing the weight, she has trained to become a health and lifestyle coach to be able to encourage others, report Manchester Evening News.
Rachel says: “I started putting weight on from the age of 8 years old, I can remember my mum taking me to Weight Watchers when I was 12 or 13 years old.
"In hindsight, reflecting on my journey now, I can see I was a secret eater, eating sweets, crisps, chocolate. All the comfort foods.
“Later on in life I went through a phase of ballooning and then just stopping eating - that was when I was at university. I dropped weight but not in a healthy way.
"From then on I yo-yo-ed and I have tried every diet in existence I think - from WW, Slimming World, the Dukan Diet, the Maple Syrup diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, Atkins, 2:5 - I tried everything."
As Rachel began to approach her 40th birthday, she was horrified after seeing a photo of herself "at her biggest" on holiday with baby boy Solomon.
She says: “I’m there smiling, but inside I’m not smiling, I’m just feeling awful. That particular summer I didn’t want my photo taking.”
Rachel’s husband asked what she wanted for her 40th birthday and her reply was: “to get fit and healthy”. So having seen a friend train with a local personal trainer on a 12 week programme thought she would give it a go.
“The thought of going to a gym put the fear of god into me at that point,” says Rachel.
“But I met him and he really put me at ease, he said let’s do some sessions in the gym. I was scared of going to the gym and disrupting everyone’s schedules so I met up at 6am in the morning.
“When I first started I can’t tell you how much pain I was in. I didn’t even fit in the XL sizes at TK Maxx, or even into a sports bra. It was only at trusty M&S I could find size 20 sportswear and bought myself a whole new set and a size 40H sports bra. I found the exercise hard and it was painful at first.”
But despite her determination and sticking to the trainer’s exercise and nutrition plan, Rachel was horrified to see it was STILL not helping her to lose weight. Frustrated, she paid to see a naturalist to see what was going on.
She was told she had parasites in her gut and to stop eating all forms of sugar. But she found even doing that did not make the weight come off.
And that’s when Rachel started to read personal development books and about biohacking, the concept of changing the environment to give you control back of your biology. “
They were talking about eating for your biology, not around a diet. And about addressing how you talk to yourself.
“I realised, I’m talking to myself in such a negative way, all I’m focussing on is what I can’t do. I’m not focussing on what I can do. They talked about facing your fears, facing your gremlins. So I started to address the gremlins.
“After addressing my mindset, focussing on what I was actually eating, and how my body was responding versus the calories, all of a sudden the weight started to come off. I was like, what?
“I started to focus on what I COULD have to eat rather than what I can’t and the weight started to come off. I continued going to the gym three times a week, drinking water, and really focusing on the quality of food I started to eat - I got rid of all diet food, all processed food."
By June 2020 Rachel had gone down from 17st 5lbs to 10st 5lbs in a year. By December 2020 she was down to 9stone 5lbs and has not put a pound back on since.
She says: “I feel more alert now, I have a lot more energy, I’m able to keep up with my children. I run around the park and don’t think twice about it and my skin seems to glow a lot more.”
She no longer counts calories but counts chemicals instead - ditching all processed foods from her daily diet.
Rachel says: “My thing now is body awareness, listening to your body. It is always communicating to you.
“Now I look at labels, I count chemicals not calories. I’m very conscious of what I put in my body. Do I love pizza? Yes. So if I feel like pizza I eat sourdough pizza with the best quality toppings.
“Similarly with a burger, if I want a burger I’ll have a burger but it’s going to be a good quality meat burger. I don’t use oils, because they cause havoc to your gut.
Buoyed by finally finding something that worked to help her get mentally and physically fit and healthy, former marketing manager Rachel decided to retrain to become a life coach.
She says: “I’ve learnt so much on my journey I just thought I can’t keep this to myself. I got myself qualified as a health coach through an online course with the Health Institute, and set up my own practice in April 2021.
“My mission is to share, inspire and support as many people as possible. I know how hard and miserable it can feel being in that space when you’re not comfortable."
She adds: “For me, gut health, plus mindset, plus consistency, plus movement gets you lasting results.
“I’m on a mission to tell people how you can lose weight for good, change those habits you’ve had for a very long time, turn them into long term habits that you just do."
What Rachel eats now
Rachel starts each day with hot water and lemon “it just sets up my gut up for the day”, she says.
Through the week (Monday to Thursday) her diet looks like this:-
Breakfast : Coconut yoghurt with homemade granola, blueberries and chia seeds.
Lunch : Smoked salmon with salad and avocado, or homemade chicken and vegetable soup.
Mid-afternoon : Apple with nut butter, or almonds or brazil nuts
Dinner : fish and greens, or chicken, lamb chops or beef, with sliced white potatoes or cauliflower rice or quinoa.
Drinks : 2 litres of water a day
Then at weekends Rachel says “anything goes” but still using only whole foods, and no processed or low-fat foods.
She enjoys full cooked breakfast with sourdough bread, fresh-made sourdough pizza, or good quality meat burgers.
For snacks, she might have some chocolate buttons - but only organic, high cocoa chocolate. She’s ditched wine for tequila and soda instead.
Rachel offers online zoom sessions as well as one-to-ones for clients, but is also keen to do more group sessions to help more people.
She is starting these with a group session on how to conquer your sugar cravings on May 10 at The Botanist in Alderley Edge, with tickets available here.
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