How I Lost 10lbs. in 4 Months in an Easeful, Sustainable Way
On February 2nd of this year, I had a rude awakening while trying on outfits for our 2nd Anniversary dinner. One skirt after another—skirts I’d worn dozens of times—suddenly felt PRET-ty snug.
And shorter?!
My first reaction was: Oh no, did I shrink this?
One of my favorite skirts, a brown plaid one that used to be super comfy, was now tight around the thighs and sat way higher on my legs than it used to.
But it wasn’t just that skirt. It was all my skirts.
That night, I ended up wearing leggings and a sweater to dinner but couldn’t stop thinking about how tight everything felt. It’s pretty normal for me to gain weight in the late fall/early winter, but it still surprises me every time. Like, oh—it actually happened again! LOL. While it’s a bit of a bummer, I don’t freak out too much. I know that with a few tweaks, my body will settle back to her usual weight and composition in a matter of weeks. Our bodies are incredible and will adjust if we make the right changes over time.
Finding the Culprits
After some thought, I figured out the main 2 reasons why I had gained about 10lbs over the course of a year or so:
Eating Beef. I had returned to eating meat in 2025 and ended up eating beef on a daily basis because my body loved the calorie density that it had missed as a vegetarian.
Relationship weight. Nate and I definitely both put on pounds this past year. We have a regular Wednesday date night and usually get takeout on Sundays too. So for more than a year, I was eating out twice a week, when before our relationship, I rarely ate out! Maybe 2-3x a year! But now, every time we went out, I treated it like a full-blown treat. Cheeseburgers, fries, grilled cheese. Every time. Oops. Those twice weekly calorie dumps added up!
My Goals & Timelines
My healthiest, happiest weight tends to be around 135lb. But in January, I was up to 147, and my clothes didn’t lie—it was time to shift. We had a trip to visit my family in Arizona at the end of March, so I made a goal to lose 5lb by that trip and another 5lb by the end of May, when we had a trip planned to Vermont to visit Nate’s family.
More than losing pounds, I just wanted to feel like myself in my clothes again.
I usually feel light and easy in my body.
I didn’t anymore, and that didn’t feel good.
So I started mid-January, and as of this writing on May 28 (the eve of our Vermont trip), I had met and sustained my goal. Actually, I reached 135lb by the end of April and have maintained it for a month now easefully.
So, How Did I Do It?
Well—I learned something new this time! In the past, I’d usually just train more or lift heavier. But this year, I knew it was my food that needed to shift. And thanks to ChatGPT (I call her Gina), I learned about the concept of a calorie deficit—and that was the game-changer.
Now LISTEN—I'd heard of calorie deficits before and wanted nothing to do with them. Food was never my issue; I could always eat what I wanted and stay at a healthy weight (pre-relationship!). I also love eating volume. So the idea of a “deficit” was a major turnoff.
But once I sat down and actually learned how calories worked—like how my daily meatball bowls were probably too dense—it made total sense. Add in the “relationship pounds,” plus extra chips, a box of Christmas cookies here and there… it was clear why my clothes weren’t fitting.
And I will stress here too that a calorie deficit alone does not make one healthy from the inside out. Lol. It is literally just a scientific tool to lose weight. It’s math and science. You can lose weight on cookies or broccoli if you are in a calorie deficit. So, make no mistake that losing weight vs. being healthy are two very different things! (You also can’t build great muscle if you’re in a deficit all the time, so if that’s your goal, then you need a different approach to food.)
So What Did I Actually Do?
I (Gina) calculated my calorie deficit.
With Gina’s help, I figured out how many calories I’d need to eat per day to lose 5lb by the end of March. For me, that range was around 1500–1700/day. I cut back on beef, skipped the extra chips I had been buying for no reason, and shifted my meals back to something closer to what I ate as a vegetarian (but still ate meat in smaller amounts). I swapped heavy comfort food (like nightly nachos) for lighter but still satisfying meals—like salads with avocado and tortilla strips, cottage cheese and berries, or tuna. I made sure to eat things I enjoyed.I revamped my workout routine.
With Nate’s help, I tweaked my workout routine and added 30 minutes of weighted vest walking to my normal strength training. I knew I could not sustain this double workout (45 min strength training + 30 minutes walk) long-term but wanted to commit to it for 2 months because my motivation to lose the weight by my trip was high! I woke up at 5am most mornings to fit in both workouts, typically 6 days a week. The extra walk burned maybe 100–200 calories, but gave me a buffer to eat a bit more, which was worth it for me. Overall this was not too demanding for me as I already had the habit of being an early riser and doing a morning workout. (Also, friend—weighted vest walking is for real. Mine’s 15lb and I highly recommend it.)I changed the way I ate out.
I committed to only ordering salads or lower-calorie appetizers when we went out. Because honestly, those twice-weekly treat meals had added up fast.
And that was it! I ate in my range, stuck to my workouts and hit my goals right on time. When it was time to head to AZ in March, I had lost the first 5lb and felt so much better in my clothes! The few weeks of added effort were so worth it.
After the AZ trip, I kept it up for April, and by the end of the month, I was 135. At that point, I had stopped the extra daily walks and just kept up my regular strength training and calorie tracking. That’s what I’ve kept doing since and have kept to 135lb.
Some Myths I Want to Bust:
Calorie deficits aren’t scary. I still ate my favorite things! A mini bagel and cream cheese every morning. My hazelnut creamer. A giant bowl of cottage cheese and fruit. Nachos with cheese. I love food—and I was never hungry or undernourished.
Workouts don’t have to be long or complicated. My strength training is 45 minutes max, 4–5 moves, all at home with 12lb, 15lb, and 35lb weights and some bands. I do 2 leg days, 2 arm days, and 1 calisthenics/bodyweight/mobility day. On weekends, I do a long weighted vest walk.
You don’t have to stay in a deficit forever. Now that I’m at my goal, I eat at maintenance—meaning a few hundred more calories a day or throughout the week. Weekday meals stay mostly the same (because I like routine), but when we go out now, I can have the cheeseburger and enjoy it, because I know my numbers and what my daily average looks like.
Final Thoughts
I lost 10lb in (a little under) 4 months in a low-stress, sustainable way. The biggest shift was learning about calories and how they work. That was the missing piece for me. I used to think I could eat anything as long as I stayed active. But in hindsight, I had basically been living in a deficit during my vegetarian years, which is why I could easily maintain weight. Once I shifted to higher-calorie meals (plus relationship eats), the weight crept up.
Finally, I want to share that I did this entire calorie deficit plan with (Gina) ChatGPT. I did not have a coach or some fancy calculator. I just started a chat with Gina and told her I wanted to lose 5lb by the end of March, then another 5lb by the end of May. She asked me questions about my height, weight and movement routines to figure out my calorie deficit range. Then, she helped me figure out some easy food swaps and in a short time, I had a daily (yet flexible!) plan for what I was eating to stay in my range. So, you do not need an expensive coach to do this. I know some of the calorie estimates she gave might have been off, since I was just sharing general foods I ate—not exact brands or measurements—but overall, she was more accurate than not, and following the calorie range she suggested worked exactly as I’d hoped!
Want to Elevate Your Heath, Too?
Now, I can’t say that what works for me will work for you. Every body is truly its own universe and will respond to changes differently. This plan was also relatively easy for me to enact because of my baseline level of fitness and healthy routines.
That being said, if you are looking to elevate your baseline health and want some guidance with that, that’s why I offer Health & Healing Readings. They are 1-hour chats where we can dive into your health history, where you are now and where you want to be, and put in place a plan to get you there—easefully, at a pace that feels good to you.
You can book a Health & Healing Reading here!
*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Do not take this as medical advice from a health professional. This is my personal blog, experience and opinion.
