How to Stay Consistent With Weight Loss When You Work 12+ Hour Shifts

Are you a busy nurse trying to lose weight but feeling stuck after every diet, fitness program, or “fresh start”?

If you're a busy nurse, healthcare worker, or woman trying to lose weight while balancing shift work, family, and life, this episode is for you.

In this episode of The Fit Nurse Diaries, Courtney Brooks dives into the mindset shift that changes everything.

Using the powerful "Giddy Up 2.0" theme again, Courtney explains why trusting the journey, letting go of limiting beliefs, and committing to your future identity are the real keys to sustainable weight loss and long-term success.

If you've ever felt like you've tried every diet, every program, or every fitness challenge without lasting results, this conversation will help you break the cycle and start creating a lifestyle you can actually maintain.

Tune in to hear about:

🩷The one little-known thing that beats motivation hands down 100% of the time
🩷How to become the person who actually loses weight and keeps it off
🩷Why trusting the process is essential for long-term success
🩷The mindset programing trap that keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over
🩷Practical mindset shifts to stay committed even when progress feels slow
🩷Why emotions shouldn't dictate your fitness journey
🩷How nurses and busy women can create healthy habits despite demanding schedules
🩷The secret to making fitness a lifestyle instead of another temporary challenge

Key Moments:

00:00:00 Intro
00:04:00 Same path, same outcome
00:07:40 Learning to trust the path
00:11:20 Becoming stone cold
00:14:40 Sink the boat
00:17:40 The stories keeping you stuck
00:20:40 Finding your way around rocks

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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

When we pull the same thought patterns, the same way of moving, the same way of thinking, the same everything, same conversations, you get the same outcome. So the path was already written for you. So yes, we can go on that horse. We can do the uncomfortable thing. But if you're going down the same pathway that you've always been on, you will always get to that same outcome. So you actually have to change who you are. Hey, maybe I have struggled with those things in the past, but this is my new story. I'm not going to blame my age, my menopause, my commute to work anymore. I'm going to look for solutions. You have to imagine that this is going to be your life for the rest of your life for literally for forever. So if you can't imagine yourself going on this pathway and carrying it out for the rest of your life, 20 years, 30, 40, 50, then what are we doing? I want you to adopt this lifestyle. It's got to be a lifestyle at the end of the day. So again, you might be wondering Courtney really loves these cowgirl hats. Um, and I do. They're so freaking fun. Um, but I am doing another episode of Giddy Up 2.0. Okay. And this is, if you haven't seen the last one, you definitely want to check that out because that is actually the, I would say the part one to this. And, you know, this theme of the month is really about getting on that horse and doing the uncomfortable thing. Because when you hop on a horse and it's about to jet off, of course, we're gonna be absolutely uncomfortable and we're just gonna be like, oh my gosh, but you gotta hang on. Okay. So that's the point of the the Gide F 2.0 is like the 2.0 version of ourselves is like the version that we want to be, and we're working towards that. So it's like, hang on, we're going towards her. Okay. So what I wanted to talk about today is I actually wanted to talk about how once you finally are on that horse, okay. You just did the uncomfortable thing. You hopped on the horse, even though you're literally like twisting and turning, you're like, oh my gosh, where are we going? It's so important to trust the path. And it's also important to stay on the path. So, what a lot of times what happens in our journeys, so more than just fitness, but in our journeys in life, is we go on the path for a little bit. Okay. So we we hop on for a week, maybe a month, and then people often give up. And it's because a lot of the time, and yeah, you know, if we actually want to bring it back to fitness, a lot of people have one foot out, one foot in. So there's a part of you that's like, hey, I can easily go back to the ranch right now and drop this horse off and I can get some hot chocolate. Hey, I already did that hard thing, wash my hands, be done. Right? But it's not gonna get us towards our goals if we only go part way. And a lot of us do have that foot in the door, foot out the door, because of the reason of our past. Our past is always going to impact our future. It always does. So if we're holding on to a lot of baggage from the past, as in, for example, like baggage with our fitness journey would be like, hey, I've tried every single program out there. I've never been able to lose weight. It's been six years. I've literally had women tell me that literally two days ago, being like, it's been six years since I lost weight, and I've been on programs. And like for a second there, I'm just like, whoa, like, how is that even possible? Um, just because I'm like, how do you not lose lose weight on a program? I'm not judging her at all, but it definitely blew my mind. But to think about it, the reason, and I I wanted her to break it down even more. I was like, tell me what's really going on. What is the baggage from the past? When we pull the same thought patterns, the same way of moving, the same way of thinking, the same everything, same conversations, you get the same outcome. So the path was already written for you. So, yes, we can go on that horse, we can do the uncomfortable thing. But if you're going down the same pathway that you've always been on, you will always get to that same outcome. So, for these women that have been like, I've tried program after program after program, when you come in here and the one foot's out the door, one foot in, and you're like, we'll just see how it works. Let's go, let's do a trial for like a month. Like, I just want to like see if it's gonna happen for me. That will lead to the same outcome you had in the last program. Why? Because nothing changes unless we change and we commit to a new pathway. This pathway has already been done. It's already been paved for you. And we saw that it didn't lead to where we want it to. So we have to literally switch. Now, how do we switch? Is we have to actually become a new identity. And I almost want you guys to claim this identity in this podcast, in that let's call it the we have to make it themed to the the cowgirl. Let's call it uh the cowgirl fit nurse 2.0. Okay. What that means is that you almost want to imagine, like, I don't even want to bring it back to myself, but imagine like this cowgirl, okay? And and she's also a nurse, of course. Okay, we need to keep that in there. Now, she has certain characteristics that allow her to become that version of her that achieves all the goals. She gets the weight loss, she gets the confidence, she gets everything that she's wants to achieve in this life here on earth, she achieves it. And why? It's not because she's lucky, like a lot of people say to me, all according, you know, she she's lucky, she's young, this is why she can get the go the goals, all the different stuff like that. No, absolutely not. That's that's a story. It's because she develops characteristics that align with the traits that she needs in order to get the goals. So I almost want to imagine, like right now, like and like Darwin's theory of like evolution, like you have to evolve yourself to be able to fit the environment. So if the environment is you want to achieve these big goals, you want to go on this different trail on your horse, you have to develop these characteristics. So you actually have to change who you are. And if we stay the same as we always done, we're we're staying in the on the sofa, we're after work, we're like, I'm too tired, I don't have the energy, I am gonna go to the vending machine at lunch. Heck yeah, we're absolutely gonna stay there. But if we develop these new characteristics, it's like, hey, I'm the type of person that after I get done the shift that I work out. Now you're literally taking that identity of your cowgirl fit nurse and you're like, she shows up even when she's tired. Okay, so what do I do? I show up when I'm tired. So what does that mean? Is that hey, maybe I get up half an hour earlier before my shift and I actually get a my stepson or a workout done then. And then I go off to my shift and I know that I'm super busy after my shift because I have kids and I have this going on, and this, this, this, this. Okay, cool. But I already got the workout done because I did it even though I was tired. Ting. Okay. What other characteristics does she have? She is someone that trusts the path. That's a huge one. Okay. And we both know, like literally looking at you right now, I know that sometimes we have a hard time trust falling into the path. And the reason for that is that we often want control, especially being a nurse. Like, think about your job, right? Like every single thing that you do has to be perfect in the day. If you didn't, if you weren't perfect, your patients are mad, you're delivering the medication at a wrong dose that can be lethal, you have to administer the meds within the time frame, or you don't have a job anymore. You are not a nurse. So the important piece here is that we don't take that into our life outside of nursing. We don't need that full control, especially if you're in good hands. Like, for example, in this program that we have, people often are like, okay, I got to trust fall into the journey. But you have to trust the path no matter what's happening. That's an extremely hard characteristic to take on. And I know because I I've been through it myself. You know, I'll give an example because I think that this is a really important characteristic to take on. When I first started my business journey, and I'm just sharing this because I think this is a really relatable one, especially when it comes to weight loss, is there were so many moments where I had so many people want to join the program, and then so many people didn't. And I was taking these calls at like 4 a.m. in the bathroom in Thailand. So it was like it was a journey. It was an absolute journey. So there was so many moments that I was like, can I even like help a lot of people? Do people even want to join this program? Like this was way back in the day, this like over like two years ago. And when that happened, there'd be like many highs and lows, right? I want you to imagine like this like graph, and it's like this. You're like, sometimes there's doubt, sometimes there's confidence, um, all this different stuff. But I still kept going. Why? Because I actually had faith and I trusted the path, even though there was some days I'm just like, is this even gonna happen? You know? So the really important piece that you can take with you for weight loss is the scale is gonna do that too, girl. It absolutely is. You're gonna come in here, you're gonna be losing weight, and then all of a sudden the scale is gonna stay the same. And you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, what did I do wrong? I thought I was perfect all week. Like, I don't even get it. Like, I was just losing results, like I was just like getting so much results for so long. Like, what's happening? And then all of a sudden the scale's gonna go up again. And you're gonna be like, no, it's not working. I need to revert back to the old way. Okay, you have to almost create a sense of trusting the journey no matter what is going on, no matter how much you're fluctuating, no matter how many days that you were dead tired after the shift. And you're like, Can I even show up? Can I even sustain this? Can I even do this with being a mom, with having such a busy schedule, having an hour coming to work? This is where stories play a huge role. Okay. Trusting the journey and changing your narrative. All right. So we're moving on to the next destination on this little rodeo that we're going on, the little trail. It's a fun trail. Okay. So the next destination is you just trusted the journey. Okay. You're going, you're trucking along. And now in this piece, you have to actually just decide that you're going to be stone cold. And I don't mean stone cold as in like you don't have a big heart because we all know that you do. We we're big heart gals in here. We care about people, we care about our partners, our patients, all the things. Don't be stone cold to them, but be stone cold when it comes to your goals. So, what that means is that you don't build trust by just sometimes doing something. You build trust by absolutely deciding to do something and sticking to it no matter what you feel. Now, what I mean by stone cold is that if you picture a stone outside, some days it's raining, but the stone doesn't move. Some days it's sunny, the stone's heating up, it's looking good, it's got a nice tan going on, like the cowgirl hat. Let's go, it's summer. But it's not changing, it's not moving, it's not denting. Nothing is happening. It's just being stone cold, even when its environment is forever just like absolutely chaotic. It doesn't matter if it's a luteal phase, if it's menopause, if it is a hard day at work, if it is something going on with the family, that stone is still there and is still exactly in the same state, emotionless. So, what does that mean is we almost have to adopt that in when it comes towards our goals? We have to be so emotionless. If we think of our emotions, like how many of you literally thinking about it, are like, oh yeah, I just got my period, I'm not going to gym. And I've I've done that too. And I absolutely think it's it's a it's a good thing to do that. But then you got to be like, oh, but I have four workouts in the week. How do I move it to be able to get it done? Right? That's still the stone. The stone's still there because the goals are still happening, even if you got to move it. But then also, you know, so many of us will be like, oh, I just got done the long shift, or this is happening on the weekend, or I'm traveling, and we end up just like falling over and forgetting all about our goals and being like, oh, I'll go back to square one like later. No, like we got to become that stone that no matter what comes up, we're like, I've got this, I'm gonna do this. This is where you develop that identity, is in those things right there. And telling yourself that that's you now. And the best way to put it is deciding that that's who you're gonna be. Once you decide that that's who you're gonna be, you don't want to change that identity. You don't want anyone to take that away from you. Why is the membership and the community in this movement so strong? Is that we're taking on those identities. We're all claiming it together. We're on this journey together. There's no part of us that's like, oh, I'm not that fit nurse. Like we're taking it on. We're seeing ourselves like that. So what does that mean? Is that when you're heading off to the shift now, when you're going to eat your lunch in the break room, you're thinking about, oh, the identity I am is that, you know, fit nurse. So what would she do right now? Oh, she'd be getting that amazing meal prep out of the fridge, even though maybe some of it is tasting a little bit raw off because it's been sitting in there for a couple of days, but I'm still doing it because I committed to that. And that's what I am gonna do because that's what the fit nurse would do. So you want to keep those identities, you want to trust the journey, and you want to head down this new path. Now, the best way to think about this, if we could tie it all together with a visual, is I always imagine when someone newly is deciding that they're gonna change your life, you want to imagine that you are heading over to an island. And theoretically, we're just gonna call this the fit nurse island. Okay. You got people that are also like you, you have people that are cheering you on, you got the amazing routine, you got the amazing foods, you got the coconuts, any moment that you want it. Like, how good is that? I love that. That's like Bali. I miss Bali. Um, but anyways, so you have all that, you have all your resources. Beautiful. But like any island, it's gonna rain, it's gonna storm, just like your trail. There's gonna be hard moments that you just want to go back to your safe zone, back to the old version of you, back to the old island. But if you go back to the old island, it means that we absolutely are never gonna be able to come back to this island that we're on. So if you imagine that you sink the boat and there's no way back, wouldn't it make sense that you actually have to adapt to becoming a person that goes all in on themselves because there's literally no other option. There's no I'll fall back to the next program, I'll fall back to old habits because it's easier. It's like, hey, I'm committed now. So I want you to visualize that in your life because that actually can help you be able to see there's no way, there's no other option, but to get towards the goals, but to become that version of ourselves that we really want to, even when it's absolutely scary. So moral of it is trust the journey, always stay on the path. Okay, give yourself no other option and be stone cold. Because in the journey, if you don't have those characteristics, it's we'll we'll always go back to old ways. We'll always pull it old baggage and tell ourselves a story that actually isn't even true. So many of us, like who's with me right now, you have a story that you're literally telling yourself that is like, I'll never be able to do it. Um, Courtney's too young, so I'll never be able to get my goals because of that. Or I have too busy of a schedule, I have too long of a commute, I have not enough energy, I have these restrictions with my diet. And guess what? You're right. You didn't think I'd say that. You're right. Because guess what? The stories that we tell ourselves we actually believe they're true. You actually believe that. And when you actually believe something, that is your reality. That is how you see the lens of the world. And when you see the lens of the world like that, you're always gonna find things to solidify that in your life. That's the wild piece, is that you actually are gonna be looking for, oh, you know what? I have too many dietary restrictions. This meal prep over here isn't gonna work for me. This meal plan here isn't gonna work for me, these recipes won't work for me, and we'll never be able to find the solution because guess what? We locked in that story. And that story will always keep us safe and it will always keep us in that same place. So, again, if you're like, I hit menopause, I'd never been able to lose weight in six years, and we're not looking for ways and solutions to be able to do it, and we just stay there, then that's your story. And guess what? Every time that you talk to someone about a fitness program or losing weight, you say, It's not my fault. I haven't been able to lose it, it's menopause. And we'll never look for another option. So your stories say everything. And I've had so many stories be placed on me in the journey too. Unfair of me. Um, but it's totally cool. I completely understand it. Where people have been older than me, I'm 28. But I have the knowledge, I've helped thousands of women in my program. I have the nursing background, I've done so much research and helped so many women of literally every different age, up to literally 78. So people are often like, well, Courtney's too young, so that's why it works for her. No, babe. It works for me because I became that fit nurse because I adopted those characteristics, because I gave it no other option. And guess what? It worked for the other people in the program too, because they adopted that. So the story of isolating ourselves over here and thinking that we just never be able to like get towards our goals because of the story we tell ourselves, you have to find another story. I want you and I want to challenge you today because I'm not in this to be right. I'm in this to actually help serve you to have a better outlook that's actually gonna move you forward because that's how you change your life. That's how you change, that's how we change the world. And that is my mission. So I want you to actually challenge yourself right now to try on a different story. Almost like you're trying on a new pair of like cowboy hats. Okay, you're trying on, you're like, oh, take this off. Let me fix it. Let me try this one on. Oh, whoa, that's a that's a weird one. Okay, cool. Now, how does that feel? Oh, that's uncomfy, but hey, that's a way better story to be like, hey, maybe I have struggled with those things in the past, but this is my new story. I'm not gonna blame my age, my menopause, my my commute to work anymore. I'm gonna look for solutions because all these factors are so real. I get it. I've been there, not the menopause, okay. I won't say that, but I've been there in in all these different situations and night shifts, the tiredness, all the different things, right? Beyond that, and my team as well, beyond that, it's like when you are looking for that story of the solution, you get the solution. And I always imagine this like a rock in your path, okay? You're trucking along. And then when you are looking for that solution, you don't stall yourself in the rock comms. And we all have those rocks. It's the injuries, it's the family member that that is really sick, it's the um menopause hormones, all the different things that are a rock. Those put a little bit of boulders in our trail, but they're not the thing that we need to stay stuck at. They're the thing that we have to find a way to overcome. Okay. So I want you to imagine that you're like, okay, let's find the solution. This, I have really restrictive eating, so this meal prep isn't working. Okay, ask my coach, what should I do here? Now all of a sudden, we found our way around the rock and we can keep going towards the goals. You see what I'm saying? So trust the journey, my gals. Um, whether in the program or you were just listening to this podcast and you're just like trying to learn about like all this, and you're like a nurse and you're like, man, like this is really cool what she's saying. Like, it is, right? Um but the main thing is is that you have to trust the pathway. You have to imagine that this is gonna be your life for the rest of your life for literally for forever. So if you can't imagine yourself going on this pathway and carrying it out for the rest of your life, 20 years, 30, 40, 50, then what are we doing? I want you to adopt this lifestyle. It's gotta be a lifestyle at the end of the day. So if you can stick it out for that long to imagine that you'll do it for forever, it will change how you actually perceive your journey in fitness because it won't be a, oh, I'm only doing this until the wedding next year. I'm only doing this till the vacation. Oh, I'm working hard for this. It will become those things are cool, but I'm changing my identity so that I can actually do this long term. And that's the goal. Ride it out until the sunset, until you literally can't anymore. And you will absolutely achieve whatever goals that you have. All right, gals. That is it for today. I hope that you enjoyed that episode. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button because there's so many cool things that we're gonna talk about over the next bit. And I want to get a campfire going actually for the next episode and share some little secrets and some stories at the campfire. I think that that'll be really fun. Um, but that being said, thanks so much for listening and I will see you next time. Bye bye.