When she's dolled up on the red carpet, Maria Menounos doesn't look like she'd have a quote from Rocky Balboa emblazoned on her wall at home ("It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward"). But the sports mantra fits her perfectly: "I'm a 12-year-old boy," jokes Maria, 36, who now has her own reality show, Chasing Maria Menounos, on the Oxygen network. "I really just am a boy with boobs. I have the gross humor, and I want to go out and play volleyball at all times."
It's no surprise that Maria wrestled on WrestleMania and cut a rug on Dancing with the Stars, or that she hosts basketball BBQs at her house with her boyfriend of 16 years, director and producer Keven Undergaro. Her competitive streak even factored into her gaining, then losing, 40 pounds in college, which she writes about in her new book, The EveryGirl's Guide to Diet and Fitness. In a chat with Health, Maria shares how she tackles her top challenges like a champ.
WATCH: Behind the scenes at the Maria Menounos cover shoot
Your book candidly addresses your college weight gain.
When I got to college, I was like, "I have a card that says I can eat everything I want!" But by January of my junior year, I was taking it to another level, competing with guys about who could eat more. And I'm supercompetitive, so I was like, "Oh yeah, let's throw down." I'd order the huge serving of pasta for four people and eat the whole thing. I was beating football players! There was a Miss Massachusetts pageant that November, with an entrance fee. I thought, I'm not gonna waste, like, a thousand dollars. So I set a goal to lose weight.
What did your friends think of your plan to shed pounds?
I never told anybody I was on a diet. I didn't tell myself! That's the key. I just wrote down everything I ate for a week and assessed my problem—it was carbs. So I made a 10 percent rule in my head: If I was eating seven slices of pizza, I would cut back to six. It was so hard to not reach for that seventh, but I was still eating what I wanted, just one less. When six got easy, I went down to five. When I got down to two slices of pizza and I was still kind of hungry, I'd throw in a salad. I think that because I'd done other diets—the grapefruit diet, the fast shakes—and failed, I knew that extreme behavior wasn't going to work.
Do you have any mind tricks that help you stay on track?
When you're making choices, you have to do it for your health. When you're thinking, I need to get skinny, it's so easy to be like, "Oh, screw it." But if you're focusing on your health, it gives you a different perspective. I'll think, I'm going to choose to feel better about myself next week by making a better decision now.
So you're planning more for the "future you."
Yeah. My dad is my inspiration. He turned 70 this year and has had type 1 diabetes for over 45 years, but he can still play full-court basketball with us. He's an animal! You have to look at your body and think of what you're putting in and what you want to be in 20 years, in 39 years. I don't want to be at the doctor's on a million pills. I have the perfect role model. I've seen the rewards of living a clean life.
Do you go to the gym daily?
I'm always figuring out a way to work out throughout my day so I don't have to go. I have my yoga mat and exercise bar in my office, so I can do a full workout in 15 minutes. I also balance my meals with my movement. I'm a rocket. I'm like shoom to the bathroom, shoom to the office. I actually put a pedometer on. At the base I get 10,000 steps a day, but on certain days I'm getting 18,000 steps. I'm burning everything I'm eating.
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Is there anyone you look at who makes you say to yourself, I hate you for that. I gotta do what you're doing?
I never look at anybody's body and think, Oh my God, I hate her. What I do is admire. Jessica Biel, for example, is so strong, and I would really love to be stronger like her. That inspires me to want to lift a few weights. If I were to take my jeans off right now, you would see pre-cellulite. It doesn't look that good, but I'm OK with that. We're all human. If I want to get rid of it, I know what I have to do.
But it's not like you wake up and go for a five-mile jog.
I wish I could be that person! Trust me: I'll see Giuliana Rancic's tweets in the morning, and she's, like, at the gym at 4 a.m., and I'm thinking, God bless you! I could never in a million years. Who else do I follow for inspiration? The Rock. That man is a machine. Also Harley Pasternak and Jillian Michaels. We always make so many excuses. These people remind me that they're just as busy and they're figuring it out.
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