Health & Wellness

Maria Menounos Wants Women to Stop Waiting for Permission to Rest

June 2, 2026

For years, Maria Menounos said yes to every opportunity in Hollywood, pushing through exhaustion and convincing herself she could keep up with a schedule that would leave most people curled up on the floor.

At one point, she says she was surviving on drive-thru meals and sheer determination. Then came the health scares: Thyroid issues, a brain tumor, and then a pancreatic tumor.

“My problem is that I put so much pressure on myself,” Menounos admitted on an episode of Well with Arielle. “And so I internalize this pressure, so that looks like overwhelm.”

Changes needed to be made. And like a lot of people, Menounos threw herself into wellness with the same intensity she once reserved for work. But these days, she’s more focused on paying attention to what she actually needs rather than trying to do it all. It required a lot of unlearning, but now, the journalist has a good understanding of what her body needs to thrive.

Maria Menounos Wants Women to Stop Waiting for Permission to Rest

The body knows before you do

Looking back, Menounos can now see that her body had been trying to get her attention long before she was forced to stop. When health issues started showing up, she treated them the same way she treated everything else…push through and keep moving.

One of the biggest warning signs was her thyroid. It was a signal that something deeper was happening beneath the surface. She compares it to the engine light coming on in a car. You can keep driving for a while, but eventually the issue catches up with you. “It’s like the body is like, ‘Oh, sh*t isn’t going right,’ and then we just kind of like, ’Oh, it’s just a thyroid thing, no big deal,’ and then we just keep on going,” she says.

At the time, slowing down wasn’t a possibility. She was working what she describes as 16- to 18-hour days, traveling constantly, surviving on fast food, and trying to keep pace in an industry where burnout often looks like ambition.

It wasn’t until her brain tumor diagnosis forced everything to stop that she finally had the space to examine how far she had drifted from her own needs.

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When wellness becomes another source of stress

After years of pushing herself to the limit in Hollywood, Menounos eventually found herself immersed in the pressure to be healthy.

The wellness industry is built around good intentions, but as evident by one five-minute scroll on Instagram, self-care has become another full-time job. Morning routines got longer, supplement stacks got bigger, recovery protocols became more elaborate. Menounos knows that cycle well. “Sometimes, like, I’ve realized when you’re doing all of the things, you’re stressing yourself out on that side too,” she says.

Social media has made wellness more accessible than ever, but it has also made it easier to feel like you’re falling behind. There is always another treatment to try, another expert to follow, another habit someone swears changed their life.

These days, she’s traded rigid routines for flexibility. Rather than trying to do every healthy habit every day, she thinks of wellness as a toolkit. Some days she needs movement, other days she needs rest. Sometimes the healthiest choice is skipping the wellness checklist altogether.

Wellness became easier when she stopped treating it like another competition. The goal was to feel better, and ironically, that started happening when she permitted herself to do less.

Why so many women wait until they’re sick to rest

If this story sounds similar to you, it’s because many women face this exact same predicament. “We’re always waiting almost for an excuse to matter,” Menounos says.

Between careers, families, relationships, and everyone’s expectations, taking time for yourself can start to feel selfish. But it’s extremely necessary. And Menounos saw that play out while caring for her mother during her battle with brain cancer.

“I think my mom was actually happiest when she got brain cancer,” she points out. It’s a jarring statement, but her point was simple: for the first time, everyone stopped taking from her and started caring for her.

That was a wake-up call for Menounos and how she goes about wellness. Instead of waiting until she’s depleted, she tries to check in with herself daily and ask what she needs before everyone else’s demands take over. So use this as your permission slip to do the same.

To hear the full conversation, listen to Well with Arielle wherever you get your podcasts.