Charlotte Hailey

Growing up in New Zealand, I had always been a little heavier than the rest; being tall (5’10″) I managed to get away with it for the most part. I wasn't your typical junk food eater, but more the type to eat ridiculously large portions of everyday food.  This coupled with general inactivity, a high carbohydrate diet, social smoking and drinking lead me stack on the kilos year after year.

When I arrived in Australia I weighed close to 100 kilos and was depressed and angry at the world I now had to live in. I made bad decisions and turned to a life of parting.  What began as recreational drug use quickly spiraled out of control and pretty soon I found myself at rock bottom with nothing to my name other than the scars of addiction and thankfully, the love and support of my wonderful family.

I decided something had to be done and set about reclaiming my life bit by little bit.  This began with kicking the bad habits I had acquired and removing myself completely from all the negative situations and people I had become involved in. I enrolled in a Health Science/Natural Medicine course, purely out of my general interest in the human body.  This truly opened my eyes to what I had been doing, and what I was still doing to my body. Education was really the key that unlocked the door to greater understanding about the impact lifestyle choices had on not only my body, but also my mind and emotions.

I started understanding the role that processed high carbohydrate foods had in weight gain and obesity, I began to see the link between what you eat and how you look.  Before this I had really not made the connection. Sure, I knew that eating too much made you fat but never really put two and two together in my own situation. Wholesome nutritious foods became staples in my diet.

I started going to the gym, and in the beginning only managed to stay there for 15 minutes at a time. I’d be puffing and panting and sweating like I’d run a marathon.

Here is my before pics (close to 100kg) and then my after!!!

Each week I pushed myself to do just a little bit more in the gym and I set goals for myself by participating in fundraising events such as the Mothers Day Classic fun run, The Sydney Bridge Run and the City2Surf. Having small goals and seeing progress spurred me on and I have not looked back since.

I got great results with running and cardio based exercise. I dabbled in strength training, lifting weights and working on the machines, but never followed a structured program.  I looked in the mirror and was reasonably satisfied with what I saw, but still thought I could be... Better!

Then one day I saw Raechelle Chase on the cover of UltraFit Magazine with an article titled 'Why Women Bodybuild'.  I looked at her body and though… “I want to look like that!!!”.  I have to admit, I was one of those women who thought too much weight training would lead to me turning into a freakish muscular machine, oh how much I needed to learn!

 After reading that article and doing plenty of research I realized that to achieve the physique presented in most fitness magazines, I was going to need to take it all the way, to a figure competition!

From their the story is simple. I trained not just hard, but smart. I ate not just healthily, but clean. 

Most of all I never gave up or missed a training session.

I never believed that it wasn't possible for me to make the changes I wanted to make and I was constantly motivated by my desire to step on stage knowing I'd done everything possible to achieve what it was I was set to achieve, no regrets!

My first competition was the NSW WNBF titles where I took the overall in both USA Figure and Fit Body.  From their I moved onto the Victorian INBA titles where I placed 2nd in Figure Intermediate.

At the INBA Nationals I placed 4th in Figure Intermediate and 5th in Figure International.  Next up was the WNBF Asia Pacific's held in Adelaide where I placed 2nd in Fit Body.

Following that I travelled to New York to compete in the WNBF/INBF World titles. Not only was this an amazing experience I also managed to place 2nd in Figure and 3rd in Fit Body.

It has been an amazing first year of competition for me and now I am truly in love with the sport, the lifestyle and the community of fitness professionals and athletes that many i now call my friends. 

I plan to continue competing and strive to make improvements to my body, I am definitely a work in progress!! I have also enrolled in the Cert 3 and 4 in Fitness and hope to one day assist others in taking their picture of their dream body and helping them turn it into a reality.

If I could have one snippet of advice or words of wisdom that I have found to be constant throughout my journey it would be as follows:

Don’t expect results without hard work. Dedication and perseverance are the key; nothing happens overnight. But if you stay focused each day and know that what you did today is taking you one step closer to your goal, pretty soon you will look back and weeks, months, years have passed and you will be safe in the knowledge that you spent each one of those days doing everything you could do to achieve your goal.