How Nurses Can Stay Fit on Vacation (Without Restricting Food)

You can go on vacation, eat out, enjoy the food, and still feel confident in your body.

In this episode of The Fit Nurse Diaries, Courtney breaks down how she navigated eating in Thailand using flexible dieting, balanced meals, protein-first choices, and sustainable weight loss habits - without falling into the restrict-and-binge cycle.

This episode is all about building a sustainable lifestyle as a nurse, instead of relying on restriction, strict meal plans, or the “I’ll restart Monday” mindset.

You’ll learn how to eat healthy on vacation, make better restaurant choices, prioritize protein, understand portions, and use flexible dieting - so you can feel confident, energized, and proud of your choices.

If you’ve ever struggled with food guilt, overeating after restriction, bloating on vacation, or feeling like you’ve “fallen off track,” this episode will help you shift your mindset and build habits that actually last.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

🩷How to eat healthy on vacation without feeling restricted
🩷Why extreme dieting often leads to overeating and guilt
🩷What to look for when ordering meals at restaurants
🩷Simple restaurant swaps that support your fitness goals
🩷How to stay consistent with workouts, steps, and nutrition while traveling
🩷How to stop the restrict-and-binge cycle
🩷The “four girlfriend method” for building balanced meal while traveling

Key Moments:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:20 Lifestyle over restriction
00:04:40 The feast trap
00:11:20 The Four Girlfriend Method
00:14:20 Smart restaurant swaps
00:17:40 The 80/20 diet
00:21:00 Protein every meal
00:24:00 Built to last

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🩷Connect With Me🩷

https://www.instagram.com/thefitnursemovement/
https://www.instagram.com/courtneymarybb/

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🩷About The Fit Nurse Movement🩷

The Fit Nurse Diaries Podcast is brought to you by The Fit Nurse Movement - the only fitness and weight loss coaching program made specifically for nurses, by a nurse. It’s designed to help you feel strong, sexy, and energised even on your busiest shift weeks.

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🩷Join the Fit Nurse Movement today🩷


https://thefitnursemovement.com/bc-joinnow891392

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So many people think in health and fitness you literally just have to restrict yourself in order to get towards your goals. It's really hard. It's this challenging thing where you're just eating chicken and rice 24-7. It is not true. I'm gonna debunk that today. We cannot go off of a meal plan for the rest of our lives. It's not sustainable. Sustainability is the foundation of what actually makes it a lifestyle. My goals for vacation is have some fun, have some flexibility, and be able to actually live this lifestyle that I feel proud about, but doing it in a way that I want to do it. Like you want to feel freaking good if you take this method, it's gonna change your life. Okay, whether that is in like living this lifestyle, traveling, or you're going out to eat, this is the ultimate method that works the best. I am going to talk to you all about something really special today, and this is the foundation of what I believe in. And it basically starts with building a lifestyle for yourself. So, so many people think in health and fitness, you literally just have to restrict yourself in order to get towards your goals. It's really hard. It's this challenging thing where you're just eating chicken and rice 24-7. But it is not true. I'm gonna debunk that today by sharing a little bit and vlogging some of my Thailand trip and what I ate there, and I'm gonna break down the foundation of it. Have you ever gone on holidays and you're you're telling yourself that you'll you'll be good? You're like, I'm just gonna restrict myself, I'm not gonna have any alcohol, I'm gonna be really good so that I can squeeze into my dresses, I can feel good in my swimsuit, and I can leave this place feeling like, okay, I lost some weight, or I stayed the same. And then you get on holidays, you're having a good time, and then you're like, oh my gosh, I just fell off track. And everyone around me is having all the chips, they're having the dessert, they're having the alcohol, and you're just like, woo, and you're just like having fun with it, and you end up swinging the other way completely. And that is the exact cycle as what I want to help you be able to break today. And I'm gonna share with you how I actually navigated going to Thailand. I literally just got back this morning and I broke down exactly what I had to eat. I have every single meal that I had on there, and I'm gonna break down the foundation of how to actually create this lifestyle for yourself so you can feel freaking amazing in your body. You can have all the energy on your trip, you can feel good in the swimsuit, you can feel confident, and you can walk away from that trip feeling empowered. When you lay down at the end of the night, after everything, you can be like, I am proud of the choices I made while still living my life because it's so important that you actually live your life. Okay, we're not staying at home and just eating from the Tupperware container. We are doing this in a way that is sustainable, gals. Okay, so I want to start by sharing with you a little story. Okay, so for me, what made me realize that it has to be a lifestyle with our health and fitness, or we will fall off, is the story of when I did bikini competitions. Okay, when I was doing bikini competitions, I was restricting myself for months and months on end. I'm talking about like six months at a time, just eating chicken and rice, some veggies, very strict meals. I've taken shots of olive oil to get my healthy fats in instead of having the ice cream. And it felt honorable. I was like, oh, I'm doing a good job. And my body looked incredible. I was like so happy with my physique. Every single day I was looking at myself, I was like, let's go, I'm feeling good. But then there became like this voice in my head, and I think we all go through this is like, is this sustainable long term? And that is a scary voice because it actually attacks you all the time. Like when you're at a family event and everyone around you is having all the cake, everyone around you is drinking, and you used to be that person that drank. That was me. I used to be a very social drinker, and when I had these bikini competitions, I had to shut off and I had to just go zero to a hundred real quick with meal prep. Now, what that did for me is once I got done that competition, I was at my leanest, felt really good. But as soon as it ended, because I didn't feel like it was sustainable, I legit was like, time to feast, boys, time to feast. Now, what that meant is that we got the cake going, we got the alcohol going, we're eating all this stuff, and actually, naturally, your hormones, when you do that, you start craving more. I actually felt impulsively like I needed to eat. And I was like, the cookies were sitting there, and I was like, we cannot have one, we need to have like five right now. And in that moment of eating five cookies, feeling like crap, and then literally being like so guilty about it and being like, Oh my god, I'm gonna lose all my progress right now. That's when I realized, gals, we cannot do that, we cannot go off of a meal plan for the rest of our lives. It's not sustainable. Sustainability is the foundation of what actually makes it a lifestyle. So when I went into my second prep for these bikini competitions, I promised myself something. I said, Courtney, we are going to be doing flexibility. We are gonna be going out to eat. We are gonna have the chocolate. If we need to have the chocolate, we're gonna have the fries, if we need to have the fries, because the fries love me, I love the fries. Okay, we can't stay away from each other. We're addicted. So, what does that mean? Is that can I actually do that? Can I have those things and actually sustain this and make it a lifestyle and actually get towards my weight loss goals and keep the body that I want. Now I trialed it and I was like, can we do it? Yes, we can. Now, what that allowed me to do in that second bikini competition is by the time that I had flexibility, I still went out to eat, I still don't did all this stuff. By the time I got done, I was like, man, I can actually do this. I can do this long term. I can actually get done the bikini competition. And instead of my hormones being like, oh my God, like we gotta feast right now, we gotta get all the cookies and a million different donuts and all this stuff. I actually just felt like I want to have a great meal and then I want to have a nice dessert after. And I felt like if I were to look at my life 20 years from now, can I sustain this long term? Yes, I can literally do this every single day for the rest of my life. Why? Is because I'm having flexibility in there. Okay. And if I didn't have that, I would automatically be like, no, I need to stop this. So that is the key to actually living this lifestyle. And that is literally why I want to break it down for all of you how to actually be able to do that, go out to eat. Because I think that actually is the number one thing that you gals are like, oh my God, if I go out to eat, I'm gonna blow up. And I used to be like that too. Like it was actually so funny because when I met my partner for the first time, uh, we went out to a steak restaurant and I was so surprised by the menu. I was like, oh my God, there's mashed potatoes on the menu. And I was like so excited about it because I actually was like, never really went out to eat because I believed it was a concept in my mind, which I think we all have, is that we can't actually go out to eat and keep our goals. But it wasn't true. So that's the cool piece, gals. So I want to be able to help you with that. And that's the thing is weight loss can can happen absolutely on vacation. But does it always have to be a priority on vacation? It's up to you. That if that's your goals, that's your goals. My goals for vacation is have some fun, have some flexibility, and be able to actually live this lifestyle that I feel proud about, but doing it a way that I want to do it. And that's what this podcast is for, for you to understand a little bit more about okay, how do you want to do it? Because it's not always my way, because everyone's different, but it's understanding the actual structure of how you want to do it. So I'm gonna share with you how I structure my meals and share a little bit of those meals in the beautiful Thailand, though. And that's such a beautiful vacation. And I felt good every day. Now, mind you, I did stay at a place that had a beautiful cafe that had the smoothie bowls, really good foods. I thought about it ahead of time. I booked this ahead of time with that in mind. And I also went in with the idea like I want to have a place that has a gym as well. So that was already taken into consideration with all this. So without further ado, let's get into the actual structure of the meals, what I'm looking for, and what you should be looking for as well. So, what I did is when I was looking at how many meals I want to have in the day, it's based on preference, but it was based on like what I know actually works for me super well. So I wanted to have three meals and I wanted to have a pre-workout snack. So typically, what I always do because I want to get a little bit of potassium before my workout and I want to have a quicker carb, I typically do a banana and some peanut butter. So I went to the store, I got myself a little jar, peanut butter, I took a teaspoon and I did a banana and I did a sugar-free Gatorade before heading out to a workout. That was my pre-workout snack. Now I had three meals outside of that, and those meals were focused on having really good, nutrient-dense meals that were very filling. Okay, and then if I needed to add a protein shake in there here and there, if I got hungry in between, then absolutely do that. So, what I focused on with my meals is I was looking for lean proteins. So if you don't know what what types of proteins those are, it's your fish, your steak, your fillet steak, it's your least, your tuna, your shrimp. If you're doing a smoothie bowl, it's double scooping the protein powder as well. I was going more towards like oats and tropical fruits, lots of veggies, and I was doing coconuts for hydration throughout the day as well, because you want to get a little bit of electrolytes and potassium and not just drinking straight up water. But of course, I always had my four-liter bottle of water. So then when it came to drinks, I was more so looking towards having almond milk and your oat milk because those are a lot lower in cows as well, and your sugar-free sodas. So it was really cool because especially when you travel, like you get to experience different types of foods, different types of drinks, which is super cool. So I got to have like this seven op that was sugar-free, that was like strawberry flavor, and I was like, oh, I've never had that before. So that was amazing too. Um, but basically, what it what we're looking for with these meals, and this is something that if you take this method, it's going to change your life. Okay. Whether that is in like living this lifestyle, traveling, or you're going out to eat, this is the ultimate method that works the best to know what to have on your plate. And it's something that I like to call the four girlfriend method. And it's basically where you have four girlfriends on your plate. The actual analogy of it I won't get into today, but just think you want to have four girlfriends, okay? Unless you're a guy, you don't want four girlfriends. Just saying, that's why whenever I explained this to my dad, I was like, you got four Pomeranians, okay? Not four girlfriends. But, anyways, so on your plate, you want to have your lean protein source. That's one of your girlfriends. You want to have a complex carb, that's one. You got your healthy fats, and that's one. And then you got your fruits and veggies, okay? That is your four girlfriends. That's what you should be looking for every single time you have a meal. Making that at home, going out to eat, traveling. So, what does that mean? Is like if you actually look at the meals that I had in Thailand, they're all incorporating the four girlfriends in them. And if something was missing from that, I was always putting it in there. So I'll give an example of that. Is like there was a smoothie that I had one time and it had all the berries in it. I put double scoop protein powder in there because I like to double it up, boys, take some extra shats. And then I also had some good carbs in there from the fruit. So you got the fruit, veggies, carb source, but it was missing the fats. So instead of me being like, oh, just pour the peanut butter in there, I was like, hey, I just want a tiny bit of peanut butter, and that's gonna give me some healthy fat. So that is giving me the four girlfriends now in that meal. So if any time that was missing from the meal, then I was always looking for the fourth girlfriend to make it really complete. And now, what does that mean is that you're gonna feel fuller for longer because you have everything your body needs, and um, it just makes a really, really amazing meal for you. So that's what to look for when going out to eat. And when you're ordering from restaurants, there's little hacks that you can use to make it an even better meal for you. So, what I typically do is we can kind of look for loopholes. Like everyone thinks, oh, I'll just order from the menu and I'll just take it as it is. No, you should like raise your standards with it and be like, hey, like I want this, and they'll be like, Oh, gladly. Okay, let's go. So, for example, I'm going out to eat, I'm having these kale chips, they're literally so yummy, you can literally see here, that I was asking them what kind of oil are you using? And instead of it being like, Oh, yeah, I'll just take whatever oil you have, they're like, Oh, we use olive oil. Perfect. Okay, that's what I want. Why? Because olive oil actually is a healthy fat that's serving my body instead of giving me these unhealthy fats with butter. So you can actually ask for those options. Now, another good one is even an omelet. Like most people are like, oh, I'll just take the regular eggs. Now, that's not a problem. Eggs are amazing for you. But if you already know you're gonna have other fats in the day, which most likely we are when we go out to eat, then we're thinking, okay, let's have a lean fat or let's have a lean protein source. So that's why I'm like, okay, give me the egg white omelet. So you can make little swaps, like they go such a long way. And dress things on the side. Dress things on the side, take the cheese out. If you don't want to have dairy, those little things go such a long way towards how you feel after not having the blue. It takes away a lot of cows and it keeps you really switched in with your your options so you're not overdoing it in the day. Now, another thing is is portions. Okay. Everyone thinks, okay, if they're serving me this meal, then I need to be having this meal and nothing, it doesn't really matter the portion size. Think about what you have at home. Okay, if you're not having a plate full of this amount of rice, then why are we having that when we go out to eat? Like we should actually be tapering it down. So, what does that mean is if I'm going out to a restaurant, they're giving me the like half an avocado, and I know typically at home that's a lot of fat. I'm not gonna be like, oh yeah, I'll just eat the whole avocado. I think to myself, okay, I'll have like two two teaspoons of it, you know, feel good about it. I'm not cutting it off. Take the rest home. Because you don't need all of that in one sitting. Because what that means is that for throughout the rest of the day, you're probably gonna have fats from a salmon, you're probably gonna have fats from other things. Maybe you're gonna have a steak later. You don't typically know, but we wanna be able to portion it so it's not overdoing one area. If we're having that much rice, it's probably gonna overdo it for the carbs the rest of the day. So you're just trying to think in balance and you can always take things home instead of eating the whole plate. I like to think about it in the way that's like okay, I'll eat what I typically have at home and the portion size that I typically have at home. Now, the important piece is, gals, is that we can't just eye this. So if you're tracking your cows, you're tracking your cows, which is great. But that is actually the foundation of building the skill to be able to do this because you wouldn't know unless you tracked your cows what actually is a teaspoon, what actually is like 100 grams, all that sort of stuff. We'd be kind of clueless to it, what's actually in the foods we're eating. So I do actually believe as a precursor to doing this, we should actually be either tracking it or have tracked in the past because that's your foundation to know how much to eat and what portion sizes as well. So if we haven't tracked yet and you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I'll just have like the four girlfriends, that's completely fine. But if you want to condense it down, you still want to stay on top of your goals, you want to be actually be losing a bit of weight on that bake, I highly recommend tracking it. But it's completely up to you. That is completely your decision based on what you want to do for yourself. So even the girls that that join the program and stuff, I'm I leave it up to them what they want to do on their vacation because the last thing I want you to do is be like compulsively tracking your foods when you're trying to enjoy your vacay. Like, if anything, just track your protein sources and then try to hit your protein go. Like that's cool. But I do actually believe that the foundation of knowing what to eat when you go out to eat and what the portion size is, it comes from tracking over time. Okay, so before you even went on this vaccine, understanding a bit about macros is gonna help you immensely. Okay, cool. Now, the next thing is is your 80-20 diet, okay? This is the lifestyle. So this is the idea of 80% of the foods you're having, nutrient-dense, whole foods, amazing foods, everything that you can imagine that is like friggin' delicious in the world that is whole foods, right there. Okay, that's what we should be having 80% of the time in this lifestyle. When you go on bake, I would say it's completely up to you how you want to manage it. Maybe it's 80, maybe it's 70-30. Okay, that's completely fine, whatever you want to do there. Either way, you want to have a little bit of that balance. Now, what does that mean for if it's 80-20? Is that 20% of the foods you're having are more flexible? So, what that could look like on your vacay and what it typically looks like for me on vacay, this vacation to Thailand, I was a bit more stricter in that I'm trying to do a challenge right now. So I'm not trying to have that 20% of flexibility. But typically the vacations, the way I would do it, I would have 80% of the foods that you're seeing here on this vlog, and then 20% of flexible foods. So, what that can mean is that I'm having the fries, I'm having the dessert in between, I'm having the little snacks that are in the hotel. That is completely fine. You can stay on top of your goals with that, but you want to be thinking to yourself, okay, that's only 20% of my week instead of 80%. So, what does that mean is if we're having that every single day, every single meal, that's kind of gonna align with more of like a 40, 60 kind of diet. And that just it doesn't create the the best balance in terms of actually, it's all like a balance, is what it is. Another thing that is super freaking helpful is if you are actually wanting to track your cows, like I said, that's completely up to you. But say you're going out to eat and you want to, you want to stay within your calories, which a lot of the girls actually do when they're tracking, is that I would overestimate the foods that you're having. So instead of you just tracking it as it is and being like, okay, I only have one pizza, I would actually overestimate it because a lot of the time it's more calories than what you actually think that it is. So what that means is yes, you only had one slice of pizza, but there's also fats that come with it. There's extra hidden calories in things that you don't even realize. So if you overestimate it when tracking it, it's probably gonna be more than likely actually accurate to the calories that you're having. So I always try to overestimate and focus on your protein target first. So when you're having your meals, having your appetizers and everything, think protein first. Okay, what that what could that mean in terms of a pizza? If you're having pizza, maybe have a Caesar salad first and have chicken breast on it. Double down on that protein, double down on the chicken breast, okay? Because then you're gonna get a lot more leaner protein in that dish. So you wanna be thinking, okay, appetizer, let's get that protein in because protein's amazing for you. Okay. So that being said, gals, that was the structure that I used. So I'll let you have a look at all the meals that I had. The idea is that I'm going for those four girlfriends on the plate. I'm thinking three balanced meals throughout the day, one snack pre-workout, get the jams going, have some fun with all that. I'm thinking, prioritize my protein every single meal. I want that lean protein. And you can even ask for double scoops of things and double portions of that protein. That should be the priority. Now, outside of nutrition, I was still doing my steps, I was still doing my workouts as I typically do. It's very easy to get our steps in when we're on vacay. Okay. With that structure, doing the 80-20 diet, understanding the foundation of macros and everything before even heading off to this vacay or just at least tracking my protein, that is going to help you so much. So if you want to be able to be on this vacation, like, why is this even important? Is like when you're on your vacation, you want to feel hot. You want to be like, I look good. You know, you're in your bikini. You don't want to feel bloated. You don't want to feel like, oh my gosh, like I wish I would have like had a better meal there. And then we end up like not liking any of our photos, and then we feel uncomfortable going out. Like, you want to feel freaking good. You want to be like, let's freaking go. We're looking. Good. You're loving all the photos. You're dancing around. You're feeling comfy. And then when you come back from vacay, you're like, I feel energized. I feel really good about the choice I made. I feel like I'm living this lifestyle. And that's what it should feel like all year round. Now I've done so much travel, different places in the world, Europe, Thailand, Bali, Australia, Canada, like US, everywhere. So I've tried every different type of cuisine and I've been able to figure out, okay, like this, these core things that I just said here are the things that actually work to be able to live this lifestyle. And you can keep your body amazing all year round. You can continue to lose weight all year round by using these foundations. So it's literally the best thing ever, girls. So basically, what I want you to be able to understand in this journey with listening to this podcast is that you do not need to be on or off a plan. Okay. And a meal plan is great for foundation, but it's not going to be the thing that serves you for the rest of your life. What actually serves you is sustainability. What is sustainable? An 80-20 diet. It's understanding these foundations to be able to actually make it a lifestyle. I go out to eat multiple times a week and I still maintain. Why? Because it's sustainable. Because I can imagine myself 30, 40, 50, 60, however long I'm gonna live for, years down the track being like, I can sustain this. And when you feel like you can do that, that's a magic place. Okay. That's what we want for you. So you don't need a restart on Monday, you don't need a restart after your trip. You can do it now. You can feel energized, you can feel confident, you can feel not bloated, not guilty, and you don't need to start over. So that being said, my gals, thank you so much for listening to this. I hope you subscribe so that you can get more tips. This is literally the foundation of what I use to run the programs that I have one-on-one in the fit nurse movement. What I teach gals because I think it's so important that they understand, you know, walking away from, you know, this podcast or walking away from the program that I have, it's not like you just all of a sudden gain weight back and you're like, oh shoot, I gotta run on to the next program and stuff. This is the foundation of what can last the rest of your life, which is so powerful because it means, hey, we can keep doing this, we can feel amazing every day. So I hope you enjoy. I love those foods so, so freaking much. Um and uh that being said, I will see you next time in the next podcast episode. Thanks so much for listening. All right. Bye bye.