Maria Menounos has always been one of the most positive voices on TV, especially on the topics of health and self-care, as a friend, commentator, daughter and wife, and now as a mother! Her journey through harrowing health conditions, including a benign brain tumor and more recently pancreatic cancer has inspired a new venture, healquad.com, to help others heal and get stronger, with lessons she learned along the way.
Her journey through serious illness (pancreatic cancer is an aggressive, nasty disease that can be fatal if not caught in its earliest stages) back to full health, happiness and now motherhood has inspired so many. Her latest venture, healsquad.com allows her to continue to inspire others to live their healthiest lives, and I can’t wait to see where she takes it next.
Maria also has great advice for everyday scenarios as well, and one of them hit me over the head recently when I was getting down on myself for skipping a swim workout and instead deciding to take my dog for a gentle walk on the beach – not some power walk, just a regular easy stroll.
Maria’s message: Instead of beating yourself up for not having motivation, find inspiration instead, since that will ultimately help you gain motivation.
This lovely sentiment came to me as I was filling my car with gas at a Shell station in Santa Monica, having decided to blow off a tough swim workout that I had planned and instead use the waning afternoon light to take the dog for a long easy beach walk along the ocean, to gain some inspiration.
I was definitely lacking motivation: It was too chilly to make me want to get into the pool, I was tired, and the dog would not have gotten the chance to frolic by the ocean – her favorite thing in life! Need more excuses? I had them. Motivation was zero! I needed some inspiration on a grey winter day.
“Don’t Look for Motivation. Look for Inspiration.”
– Maria Menounos, TV host, Mom and Pancreatic Cancer Survivor
The inspiration quote came to me as if by divine intervention as I was feeling bad about my utter, abject lack of motivation, from a voice I immediately recognized from when we had met long ago. I looked up and saw Maria, chipper as can be, looking gorgeous as always.
Maria is someone who I had met many years ago and have admired ever since. It was like she wa standing there, an old friend, offering me helpful advice and said the exact words that I needed to hear in that moment.
Speaking to me from the gas pump she was a welcome reminder that taking care of one’s mental health (through inspiration) is the first step in taking care of one’s physical health (finding motivation). Thanks, old friend. So lovely to see you thriving, as always.
Mental health is the beginning, middle and end of good health. No matter what life throws at you, which is often outside your control, like a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, it’s how you react that matters, and Maria shows that healing starts from within. She looks healthier now than most people, and we are so glad to see it!
Maria continues to amaze me as a cheerful voice of wellbeing and self-determination. We can’t wait to see what she does with healsquad.com. And we are grateful for the fact that she is healing all of us, every day, with her upbeat attitude and positive mental outlook.
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