Speaker 1: This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Chris Harrison coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1: I am solo today because I have an incredible guest
Speaker 1: to talk about her life, her story. If you just
Speaker 1: read what has happened to her and what she's gone through,
Speaker 1: you would say this is a crazy, tragic story. Yet
Speaker 1: when you listen to Maria Manunos, when you hear her voice,
Speaker 1: you realize it is anything but tragic, and that is
Speaker 1: all about her perspective. And Maria Manunos, if you don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you do. Journalists, television presenter, actress, hosted Extra
Speaker 1: and E News and has been a TV correspondent on
Speaker 1: Today's Show and you name it. Marie and I. I
Speaker 1: was trying to think if we've worked together. I think
Speaker 1: we have it at points throughout the twenty plus years
Speaker 1: we've both been in Hollywood together. I know we have
Speaker 1: worked alongside each other on red carpets and at events
Speaker 1: and obviously hosting The Bachelor and stuff for some twenty years.
Speaker 1: Are pathsive crossed. She is a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: She has an amazing podcast that she has started because
Speaker 1: of all of the health stuff that she and her
Speaker 1: mom have gone through. It's called the heel Squad. So
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Let's welcome to the most dramatic
Speaker 1: podcast Ever. Maria Manunos. All right, Maria Manunos, ringers off,
Speaker 1: smile is on, We're good, We ready to go.
Speaker 2: We're ready, Chris, let's do this.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the most dramatic podcast ever. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining me. You are somebody I've wanted to talk to
Speaker 1: for quite some time. Not only do you just have
Speaker 1: this amazing charisma and charm and wit, and I've always
Speaker 1: loved to watch you and work alongside you as we
Speaker 1: have for well, I hate to say it probably decades now,
Speaker 1: but you have an amazing story as well that a
Speaker 1: lot of people followed, and I know the audience to
Speaker 1: the most Dramatic podcast ever will love diving into all
Speaker 1: of this with you, and so I appreciate you being here.
Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1: I know you are incredibly busy because I know you
Speaker 1: have a two month.
Speaker 2: Old Yes I do that ever happened to me.
Speaker 1: I am amazed at the smile and the fact that
Speaker 1: you look like you may have gotten five to six
Speaker 1: hours of sleep which is pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, don't tell anyone. I'm definitely sleeping.
Speaker 1: Really, so Athena, your beautiful daughter is sleeping through the night,
Speaker 1: eating like all is good. Don't tell anybody. Is that
Speaker 1: a bad thing?
Speaker 2: Well, the pediatrician told me today, she goes, do not
Speaker 2: tell anybody that she's sleeping through the night. They'll kill you.
Speaker 2: They'll be so pissed.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of that's kind of a thing. So
Speaker 1: I got lucky with my two kids. I had friends
Speaker 1: who had the calligey baby, the ones who you had
Speaker 1: to put on the uh washing machine or whatever to
Speaker 1: kind of rock them asleep, or they drove them around
Speaker 1: the neighborhood all night long. So I've heard the horror stories.
Speaker 1: Thank god that wasn't me, and apparently that's not you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm like I said, I'm even scared
Speaker 2: to say it now. Seriously, what any bad juju coming
Speaker 2: our way?
Speaker 1: No, you're smart, You're You're only two months into this.
Speaker 1: So much can change, and it will, you know.
Speaker 2: I really think Chris, God just gave me the reprieve.
Speaker 2: God was like, this, poor girl, she's gone through so much,
Speaker 2: Let's just give her a good baby.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, yeah, the least there.
Speaker 2: Are good babies and bad babies. I don't believe there
Speaker 2: are good babies and bad babies. They're all good.
Speaker 1: There are more challenging children and less challenging, especially at
Speaker 1: every stage, by the way, but especially when you start,
Speaker 1: and it is just such it's such a change for
Speaker 1: you and Kevin to go from this independent. We can
Speaker 1: go anywhere, do anything any reservation we want to. Now
Speaker 1: your life is controlled by this little nugget. How much
Speaker 1: has it changed?
Speaker 2: You know what? We weren't those people that were like,
Speaker 2: we didn't live normal lives. Chris like, I worked crazy.
Speaker 2: I was a human airplane. I did ten thousand jobs
Speaker 2: at once. And then health crises hit our family and
Speaker 2: so the last seven years was caretaking and cancer and
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. So we haven't had the normal.
Speaker 2: Like even Kevin and I's courtship was ruined. We never
Speaker 2: got like a proper courtship. We didn't get married until
Speaker 2: twenty years in basically, you know, so everything happened later
Speaker 2: for us. We were never those people were like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're like traveling here this summer. We never did that
Speaker 2: stuff until the last few years. We've just started traveling
Speaker 2: a little bit, and so, yeah, we are so grateful
Speaker 2: for this change because it's what's been missing in our lives.
Speaker 2: I've won this for so long. I've been really feeling
Speaker 2: that that whole, and my parents kind of filled it
Speaker 2: because I always looked at my parents like they were
Speaker 2: my kids. I took care of them, I spoiled them.
Speaker 2: But it was time for me to have my little bit.
Speaker 1: When they say that clock is ticking, whatever that is,
Speaker 1: you were feeling.
Speaker 2: That, I was, Yeah, I was scared.
Speaker 1: If you're not asking yourself those questions as a human being,
Speaker 1: as you were about to be given another human being
Speaker 1: to care for, you're crazy out of your mind. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you're just so arrogant that you think you're perfect
Speaker 1: at everything. If you don't think that, you are not prepared.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand that because you are given a child,
Speaker 1: a human then you just go home and that is
Speaker 1: just not a normal thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was thinking yesterday the first time I drove
Speaker 2: her in my car, and how slow they used to
Speaker 2: call me Maria ANDRETTI. I love speed, I love driving.
Speaker 2: I was triving like such a snail, so scared doing
Speaker 2: the cross and the car, praying to.
Speaker 1: God were you just looking in your rearview mirror the
Speaker 1: whole time because when Josh was my first, my son
Speaker 1: who's now a senior in college. By the way, it
Speaker 1: will happen very quickly, so don't worry about any sleepless
Speaker 1: nights or when she when she throws up on you
Speaker 1: or what. Just enjoy it all. But did you drive
Speaker 1: around that first day? I remember leaving the hospital and
Speaker 1: just looking like, is this He's still back there? He's
Speaker 1: still back there, Just constantly checking and looking like what
Speaker 1: is happening.
Speaker 2: Well, we had a fly home because she was born
Speaker 2: in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, true, So Athena by the way, for people
Speaker 1: that don't know, born via surrogate in Wisconsin, and obviously
Speaker 1: you guys live in La.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, we flew and got home. I
Speaker 2: think by the time we landed in our actual home
Speaker 2: it was like one o'clock in the morning. We had
Speaker 2: been gone for three weeks, just you know, on baby
Speaker 2: watch because we thought she was coming early, and of
Speaker 2: course she came a day after her due dates, so
Speaker 2: she really stretched our Wisconsin time out. We had a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, what's funny, it was the one
Speaker 2: time in life that we had where we had nothing
Speaker 2: to do and just an abundance of time. So my dad, Kevin,
Speaker 2: and I would just go to different restaurants throughout Milwaukee, breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 2: and dinner, and we just enjoyed absolute, like peaceful nothingness
Speaker 2: for so long, just anticipation and excitement. It was really
Speaker 2: cool kind of together time. But yeah, we came in
Speaker 2: the middle of the night and it was just my
Speaker 2: friends had already helped me set up the house, thank god,
Speaker 2: and we just all ran to our corners, unpacking, setting up,
Speaker 2: getting her ready. And then the next day we took
Speaker 2: a deep breath and we're like, Okay, we made it.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of cheese curds in Wisconsin. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of time. What was your relationship with the surrogate
Speaker 1: and do you have a relationship now or will you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, they're family for life. They gave us the
Speaker 2: greatest gift in the world, and we really built a
Speaker 2: great friendship with them and love them. And you know,
Speaker 2: they've already come visit. They came out to visit two
Speaker 2: weeks after we brought them out so they could go
Speaker 2: to Disney, and we just we love them.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, obviously, It's hard to answer because this is
Speaker 1: their perspective, But what is their feeling when they're around Athena?
Speaker 1: Are they just excited because she's in such an amazing,
Speaker 1: loving home and an amazing loving relationship.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. Both of them were on my show
Speaker 2: Heel Squad, and they talked about the journey with us
Speaker 2: and how rewarding it was to see us that moment
Speaker 2: we became parents, so they'll never forget that moment and
Speaker 2: just how special it was. And her husband remarked on
Speaker 2: hearing me talk to friends on the phone, He's like,
Speaker 2: hearing you say it's so great to call people with
Speaker 2: good news from a hospital for once. Yeah, he was like,
Speaker 2: that just moved me so much. And I realized, like
Speaker 2: what we just did. And so when they came over,
Speaker 2: it was great to have time to see her in
Speaker 2: her environment and the kids, her kids or their kids
Speaker 2: were so excited to see her in their environment and
Speaker 2: kind of have that closure. And so, yeah, we're hoping
Speaker 2: for an annual trip. We have a home in Connecticut,
Speaker 2: so I said, every year, you guys got to come
Speaker 2: in the summer and come visit and enjoy each other.
Speaker 1: So that's very cool. What an amazing story, and just
Speaker 1: the fact that Athena will have that much more love
Speaker 1: in her life is a good thing.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: You mentioned health and cancer tumors, etc. Let's dive into it.
Speaker 1: Let's go back. So you are living this life with Kevin.
Speaker 1: Life is good. And then you and your mom, who
Speaker 1: has since passed away, both had brain tumors simultaneously. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to even say that, it is hard to wrap your
Speaker 1: mind around.
Speaker 2: My mom was diagnosed in early September or late August
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen with glioblastoma stage four brain tumor, and then
Speaker 2: a couple months later in April, I in twenty seventeen
Speaker 2: was diagnosed with the men in geoma, which is a
Speaker 2: benign They didn't know at the time for sure what
Speaker 2: it was, but you know, once they operate they can
Speaker 2: get all the pathology back. And they confirmed it. And
Speaker 2: I had the top researcher in my studio here and
Speaker 2: she said it was like lightning striking to have this happen.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't happen, she said. So it was very strange,
Speaker 2: but it definitely took me on a whole journey of
Speaker 2: health and wellness and caretaking and shifting my whole life
Speaker 2: into I think my purpose and my mission.
Speaker 1: Because I was going to ask you, and that your
Speaker 1: researcher kind of took it away. I was wondering if
Speaker 1: doctors ever said to you and your mom, like, how
Speaker 1: this little cluster could have happened, if it's just this
Speaker 1: weird once and a bajillion anomaly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't know, and they're not hereditary, they're not
Speaker 2: technically connected in any kind of way, so you know,
Speaker 2: and I just called it my gift from go because
Speaker 2: it was my gift. It was my invitation to change
Speaker 2: my life. And I am a much happier person now.
Speaker 2: I am just so much calmer. I am, ironically, even
Speaker 2: though you'll see there are more health battles that happened.
Speaker 2: I lived a pretty unhealthy life though I look healthy.
Speaker 2: I was in toxic environments, toxic you know situations. I
Speaker 2: was eating fast food twenty four to seven just to
Speaker 2: make the day because I was working twenty hours a
Speaker 2: day and seven days a week, and you know, I
Speaker 2: was so hustle, hustle, hustle. I can do it, you know,
Speaker 2: And so I always say life is in your health
Speaker 2: is an accumulation of your choices. So at some point
Speaker 2: I got better about my choices. My best friend convinced
Speaker 2: me to quit fast food, so I quit the fast
Speaker 2: food and then you know, just eventually the wheels come
Speaker 2: off the wagon. And I think that though we haven't
Speaker 2: done a lot of research on IVF, I don't think
Speaker 2: IVF did me any favors either. Because you're introducing all
Speaker 2: these synthetic hormones into your body. I knew it wasn't
Speaker 2: a good energy for me. I felt it. I did
Speaker 2: not like the idea, But hormones grow things. So now,
Speaker 2: whether the brain tumor was in my head at that
Speaker 2: point or not, I now started feeling extreme head pain
Speaker 2: and other symptoms that led me to the brain brain
Speaker 2: tumor discovery. Wow, and so who knows?
Speaker 1: And you go through surgery, you get the brain tumor
Speaker 1: taken out, but that wasn't the end for you. There
Speaker 1: was cancer following a brain tumor. So when did you
Speaker 1: get the cancer diagnosis?
Speaker 2: So that was earlier this year. You know, there's so
Speaker 2: many things that have happened in my life. I also
Speaker 2: the caretaking journey is really really arduous and painful and emotional,
Speaker 2: and a lot of people get cancer, taking care of
Speaker 2: people with cancer.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting.
Speaker 2: And so there's a woman actually who created a clinic
Speaker 2: in Mexico called Baja Dgate. That's where I took my
Speaker 2: mom on two different occasions to help her when her
Speaker 2: tumor was growing. And she created the clinic because she
Speaker 2: got cancer taking care of her mother who had cancer.
Speaker 2: And the clinic basically their whole mission is we don't
Speaker 2: just take care of the patient, we take care of
Speaker 2: the caretaker as well. So when my mom was getting
Speaker 2: vitamin C infusions or whatever, so was my dad. He
Speaker 2: was right next to her. Now, I was also the caretaker,
Speaker 2: but I had to keep on working.
Speaker 1: So I've never heard that that's really So they're making
Speaker 1: a direct correlation between someone who has cancer and the caretaker.
Speaker 2: I don't have research on it. Yeah, but but that's
Speaker 2: why she founded this this this place clinic and caretaking.
Speaker 2: I mean, you'll see, I'm pretty sure if I have
Speaker 2: the statistic right, it was you know what, Actually, I
Speaker 2: can pull it up because you're gonna it's gonna blow
Speaker 2: your mind. And the caretaking crisis is such a major thing.
Speaker 2: This is the message of what is what caretaking is
Speaker 2: in terms of the toll it's taking on women's bodies.
Speaker 2: So forty three million unpaid caregivers, mainly women in this country.
Speaker 2: Stanford found forty percent of Alzheimer's and dementia patient caregivers
Speaker 2: die before the patient they're taking care of. Wow. Fort yes,
Speaker 2: and Alzheimer's is about to overwhelm the system in the
Speaker 2: next twenty years. So I don't have statistics on the cancer,
Speaker 2: but that statistic on the Alzheimer's just shows you how
Speaker 2: much of a whole caretaking takes on a person, So
Speaker 2: I do think that that also was a problem. There
Speaker 2: was also a really crazy statistic about the amount of
Speaker 2: people that got diabetes after getting COVID, So post COVID,
Speaker 2: I got a whole bunch of other shit that happened
Speaker 2: onto immune wise, and I was trying to get to
Speaker 2: the bottom of all of it. In the interim. I
Speaker 2: got another one called type one diabetes last June, and
Speaker 2: so I'm dealing with the type one diabetes. I'm having
Speaker 2: these weird pains. I'm going to the hospital. They're telling
Speaker 2: me I'm fine. Well, they missed a tumor that was
Speaker 2: two centimeters in November last year that doubled in size
Speaker 2: by January. Of this year, and that was on my pancreas,
Speaker 2: and so they diagnosed me with this pancreas tumor and
Speaker 2: I had surgery February sixteenth. They removed the tail of
Speaker 2: my pancreas, my spleen, seventeen lymph nodes, and then I
Speaker 2: also had a fibrary the size of a baby. So
Speaker 2: though I did not give birth to a baby, I
Speaker 2: have a C section scar from the fibroid baby they
Speaker 2: took out. And so that was the beginning part of
Speaker 2: this year. And I'm lucky because this is exactly what
Speaker 2: Steve Jobs died of. And so if mine was growing
Speaker 2: that rapidly in two months, I'm like, do the math,
Speaker 2: where would I have been by the time end of
Speaker 2: June world around when Athena was born. So it was
Speaker 2: really scary. But the thing that's scariest is when you
Speaker 2: hear tumor on the pancreas, You're like, oh, I literally
Speaker 2: looked at the radiologist. I'm like, so I'm a goner.
Speaker 1: Right, that's usually not great.
Speaker 2: Like white as a ghost, Chris, He's welling up. He's
Speaker 2: so freaked out. He's like, you need to go to
Speaker 2: the hospital right now. And I'm like oh my God.
Speaker 2: And Kevin and I just numb, but having gone through
Speaker 2: so many crises, we're like, okay, just stay calm. We
Speaker 2: get to the doctor now. My doctor is like, this
Speaker 2: better be the dumbest radiologist that ever happened in this world.
Speaker 2: He's like, this would be the cruelest joke in the world.
Speaker 2: We do an MRI, they confirm the tumor in the pancreas.
Speaker 2: He's now crying with me in the lobby, like.
Speaker 1: What the yeah, that's worth a what the f.
Speaker 2: And Kevin is like, We're going to be fine, guys,
Speaker 2: stop crying. We're gonna be fine. We're going to be fine.
Speaker 2: I meanwhile, he's terrified because he knows we have a
Speaker 2: baby on the way, and I'm just like, how could
Speaker 2: God finally bless me with a baby and I'm not
Speaker 2: going to be here for her. And then the more
Speaker 2: I thought about it, the more I realized, well, maybe
Speaker 2: this doesn't make sense, Maybe this isn't the story that
Speaker 2: I'm thinking the worst case scenario. They started shifting my
Speaker 2: energy into possibilities. And I use this technique called choose
Speaker 2: wonder over worry, so I would say, I wonder what
Speaker 2: it's going to be like when the doctor calls me
Speaker 2: with good news next and he would, I wonder what
Speaker 2: it's going to be like when I get to the
Speaker 2: other side of surgery and I do great And it happened,
Speaker 2: and so I started doing that and helped. But there
Speaker 2: was a period that was scary, and my doctor didn't
Speaker 2: show me the report, thank god, where they said they
Speaker 2: thought it was at our non rome and a carcinoma,
Speaker 2: the badst tumor that so I always get the good tumors,
Speaker 2: if you can have the worst tumors, but the best
Speaker 2: of the worst, right exactly. My mom wasn't so lucky.
Speaker 1: But when did your mom pass away?
Speaker 2: My mom passed away two years ago in May.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I marvel at and I guess the only thing
Speaker 1: you could do is is laugh or smile at this point.
Speaker 1: But I marvel at your attitude. And you mentioned how
Speaker 1: it your philosophy has changed, life has changed. What was
Speaker 1: the what was the impetus for that? Because you could
Speaker 1: just as easily have gone down the other path of
Speaker 1: being bitter, angry, pissed off at the world, and yet
Speaker 1: you're not. Because it did take your mom, and it
Speaker 1: did affect your dad, and it has clearly affected you
Speaker 1: and you've been through it. How are you this person
Speaker 1: with such positivity?
Speaker 2: Well, I always do remember how blessed I am, and
Speaker 2: I always like, even with the brain to I'm like,
Speaker 2: I've had an amazing life. Yes, there have been a
Speaker 2: lot of painful times, but I've lived a life that
Speaker 2: you know, one percent of people could ever live. So
Speaker 2: if this is the end, this is the end. I had,
Speaker 2: you know, a great ride. I know I'm super blessed,
Speaker 2: and I also am always thinking so many people have
Speaker 2: it way worse. Yes, I had my head, saw it open,
Speaker 2: and I've got all these cuts everywhere from the other
Speaker 2: surgeries and stuff. But I'm strong and i can handle it,
Speaker 2: and I have my family around me, and I'm good.
Speaker 2: I can do it. You know, when my mom was
Speaker 2: passing those six months we were on the East Coast
Speaker 2: with her giving our safe passage. Sometimes my dad would
Speaker 2: be like cooking and he'd break down and he say,
Speaker 2: why us, Maria, why so many things in our family?
Speaker 2: And I was like, Dad, why not us? Why everybody else?
Speaker 2: We can't always think it's going to be someone else,
Speaker 2: or why is this unique thing happening to us? One
Speaker 2: in three women and one and two men will get cancer.
Speaker 2: I just did stand up to cancer. That's the statistic people.
Speaker 2: So what we need to do is we need to
Speaker 2: come to grips with bad Shit's going to happen. How
Speaker 2: are we going to handle it? I choose to go
Speaker 2: through it with humor. It doesn't mean that I don't
Speaker 2: have my down moments. I was on my knees thinking
Speaker 2: I may not get to meet my daughter that I've
Speaker 2: been dreaming of for so many years and struggled so
Speaker 2: hard to get So I was crushed, but I didn't
Speaker 2: stay there. It's how long you stay there. And and
Speaker 2: that's you know why I'm on this, Like maybe you
Speaker 2: call it a health crusade, whatever it is. With my show,
Speaker 2: I want to help people get as healthy as they
Speaker 2: can to minimize and mitigate what might be coming. Right,
Speaker 2: So some of us have made a lot of, you know,
Speaker 2: not so great choices. The mac truck's coming. Can we
Speaker 2: slow it down? Can we get it to veer to
Speaker 2: the left, right?
Speaker 1: Or when it does hit you, you rebound from it quicker
Speaker 1: you have a better chance of surviving that hit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but your I guess the best word is perspective. You
Speaker 1: have amazing perspective, And that's when I had read all
Speaker 1: about your story. And obviously I've known you for years.
Speaker 1: I know we're not like best friends, but I've always
Speaker 1: kind of kept up with your story because I knew you,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, God, her perspective is amazing. And that's
Speaker 1: the difference to me of people that become relentless and
Speaker 1: perpetual victims as opposed to as you just said, very astutey,
Speaker 1: and I think you just crushed it. How long do
Speaker 1: you stay in that misery? How long do you remain
Speaker 1: a victim before you say, Okay, what do I do now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's time to get up, Rocky. It ain't about
Speaker 2: how hard you hit, It's about how hard you can
Speaker 2: get hit and keep moving forward. When I got out
Speaker 2: of brain surgery, Chris Kevin was filming me, because I
Speaker 2: was like, film everything. I want to know everything. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And the first things I said out of surgery was
Speaker 2: that quote. And it's really, you know, there's certain things,
Speaker 2: certain mantras like that life is happening for me, not
Speaker 2: to me. Those are all mantras and quotes that help
Speaker 2: me get back up. And you know the reality is,
Speaker 2: no one's calming to save us, like we have to
Speaker 2: save ourselves. We've watched all these Disney movies going to
Speaker 2: be rescued, and we're the ones that have to rescue
Speaker 2: ourselves and it's not easy. So you try to surround
Speaker 2: yourself with good people, and humor is a really great
Speaker 2: way to get through a lot of things. And then
Speaker 2: we have to look around and just say someone has
Speaker 2: it worse. Doesn't mean we can't have our feelings. We
Speaker 2: are entitled to our feelings, our emotions. It's going to
Speaker 2: be harder some days than others, but we have such
Speaker 2: a short time here. How do you want to live
Speaker 2: that time? So if that was my only you know,
Speaker 2: two weeks or three weeks or three months, like you know,
Speaker 2: maybe I was headed towards Steve Jobs, how did I
Speaker 2: want to live those moments? And I've watched enough inspiring
Speaker 2: movies to say I'd rather be like them, And so
Speaker 2: that always inspires me. Is those people who are quadriplegic
Speaker 2: and they're, you know, at the Olympics doing unbelievable things.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know if I could do that.
Speaker 2: I really don't know. I don't know what it's you know,
Speaker 2: what it's like to be in those situations, I can walk.
Speaker 2: You have to think of what you can cand do
Speaker 2: rather than what you can't do. And I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's just it's worked for me. And listen, I had
Speaker 2: a great role model. I watched my mom. We were
Speaker 2: talking about this and crying at dinner last night, me,
Speaker 2: my dad, and my mom's best friend. My mom heard
Speaker 2: you have a brain tumor. She smiled. She went into
Speaker 2: surgery brain surgery with a smile. So what was I
Speaker 2: going to do? Cry?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I had a role model. I saw another way. And
Speaker 2: so I think if enough of us see another way
Speaker 2: to handle crisis, to handle something rough that happens in
Speaker 2: your life, something you didn't deserve. Right, we always have
Speaker 2: those moments when something should be happened and you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't deserve this. I'm a good person. Why would
Speaker 2: this happen? Yeah? And by the way, you're entitled to
Speaker 2: a little of it, of course, But then, how do
Speaker 2: I want to spin this? How do I want to
Speaker 2: make lemonade out of this? Because lemonade is meant to
Speaker 2: be made. God is pivoting you. I say God, you
Speaker 2: can say Universe, you can say whatever you believe in
Speaker 2: for me, God is pivoting you away from something for
Speaker 2: a reason. God pivoted me out of so much I
Speaker 2: didn't belong in for a reason, put me towards the
Speaker 2: path I needed to be in. And so I just
Speaker 2: I've always just been like, God, take me where I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to go. I'll be a good person, I'll work
Speaker 2: really hard. Just show me the way. I don't know where.
Speaker 2: People always thought I had some master plan in my
Speaker 2: career or whatever. I'm like, I'm just going I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go wrestle here. I'm going to go do that over here.
Speaker 2: And I just did whatever was in front of me.
Speaker 2: That felt good, and because I know that there's a
Speaker 2: path and I know I'm going to be taken there,
Speaker 2: and so I was. And that's what I'm doing every
Speaker 2: single day, and I'm lit over it because I'm helping myself,
Speaker 2: I'm helping my loved ones, and I'm helping other people
Speaker 2: take control of their health.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that perspective. I love the
Speaker 1: attitude because I fully believe in that as well. Well.
Speaker 1: That look, head, take your moment, have a pity party,
Speaker 1: but then figure out why what's next moving forward? I
Speaker 1: fully have lived that myself and I love that. And
Speaker 1: as you look back, I'm curious because I know now
Speaker 1: there are thousands and thousands of people who look at you,
Speaker 1: listen to you, listen to the Heel Squad, and now
Speaker 1: I'm sure reach out to you if you could. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is fair, but is there
Speaker 1: one change? Is there one healthy habit? Is there one
Speaker 1: moment where you look back you're like, that's the biggest
Speaker 1: or that was the thing, okay.
Speaker 2: And this is not being promotional. This is your accountability partner.
Speaker 2: Every day. I always say, if you want to get healthy,
Speaker 2: you got to hang out with healthy people. If you
Speaker 2: want to make money, go be with people who are
Speaker 2: making money, like you have to surround yourself with what
Speaker 2: you want to be. And so I always tell people
Speaker 2: listen to my show Ohel Squad because you're going to
Speaker 2: be continuously exposed. It's a good brainwashing, and so you're
Speaker 2: gonna be continuously exposed to new techniques, new modalities, new
Speaker 2: ways of thinking, new health experts, new health hacks. And
Speaker 2: so my formula for people for their foundation is get
Speaker 2: your circadian rhythm in in play. So that's getting outside
Speaker 2: just before sunrise, seeing that change in light that sets
Speaker 2: your circadian rhythm. It tells your body what time it
Speaker 2: is and what processes it's going to start doing. And
Speaker 2: then throughout the day, if any of you work in
Speaker 2: fluorescent lighting, oh my lord, we got to kill the
Speaker 2: fluorescent lights. Go outside, even if it's for two minutes.
Speaker 2: Pretend you're a smoker and you need a smoke break.
Speaker 2: Just go outside and get that light in your eyeballs.
Speaker 2: Your eyes have your retinas have UV receptors. That light
Speaker 2: is so important to your body. So I'm outside every
Speaker 2: morning at sunrise. Just before I get that light, I
Speaker 2: go inside. After fifteen minutes, I feed the dogs. I
Speaker 2: go get Athena. I bring her outside where both I'm
Speaker 2: in a bikini, she's in her little diaper, and I
Speaker 2: feed her first feeding outside in that fresh early sunlight.
Speaker 2: It's the most medicinal sunlight. We're told to stay away
Speaker 2: from the sun and no, hold on, add some toxic
Speaker 2: sunscreen on top of your skin. That's going to go
Speaker 2: to your body. And the common denominator across most are
Speaker 2: all cancers is low vitamin D. But stay away from
Speaker 2: the sun and hold on, make sure you put that
Speaker 2: toxic shit on your skin. Yeah, get in the sun,
Speaker 2: build your solar callus very slowly, and get that medicine.
Speaker 2: Your body is like a solar panel for your For.
Speaker 1: The light, guys, obviously Maria is not spinning her winter
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin or Chicago.
Speaker 2: Well, then you need red light inside.
Speaker 1: And I was gonna say, I was asking if you
Speaker 1: believe in the uh, the salt saunas, and.
Speaker 2: The yeah, I do. So there's little red lights you
Speaker 2: can buy for cheap, and you can at least be
Speaker 2: getting that light in the winter months that you're missing
Speaker 2: from being outside. So it's circadian rhythm getting the light.
Speaker 2: Blue blockers, blue light toxicity I thought was bullshit. I
Speaker 2: thought it was a scam, so we'd all go buy
Speaker 2: new sunglasses or new glasses. It's not. It actually raises
Speaker 2: your blood sugar. I'm Type one diabetic. For a moment,
Speaker 2: I'm going to heal that. But anyway, blue light actually
Speaker 2: raises your blood sugar. It does all these bad things,
Speaker 2: and it's I mean, it does a lot of bad
Speaker 2: things in young people, so very controversial. But Jack Cruise,
Speaker 2: doctor Jack Cruse said, one of the worst things we
Speaker 2: can do is put our kids in front of blue light,
Speaker 2: and that means tablets, phones, TVs, and so blockers are
Speaker 2: really really important for during the day when you're in
Speaker 2: blue light and then at night full blockers. So you'd
Speaker 2: see Bono wearing those red glasses. Pretty sure he was
Speaker 2: wearing blue blockers that whole time.
Speaker 1: We always thought he was just being cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, block the light, the blue light from your indoor
Speaker 2: lighting at night, and that helps to not interrupt your
Speaker 2: circadian rhythms, so your body will produce melatonin at the
Speaker 2: proper time. You have to eat your food before sunset.
Speaker 2: It's actually becoming a thing now, so it's becoming the
Speaker 2: cool thing to do early dinners. I've been doing them
Speaker 2: before they were cool.
Speaker 1: So people in Boca Raton, they've eating their dinner at
Speaker 1: four thirty. They've had it all along.
Speaker 2: They've had it all along because you want your body
Speaker 2: when it's producing melatonin to not be interrupted by having
Speaker 2: dinner at a PM. And your body's like, wait, I'm
Speaker 2: eating dinner now, and so you got so you add
Speaker 2: that in and that is like my biggest thing for
Speaker 2: right now. You do those things and ps, please get
Speaker 2: a natural path on board. You got to know and
Speaker 2: this is what I share on my show all the time.
Speaker 2: Chris is you have to know your team. You're the coach.
Speaker 2: You putting quarterback in the kicker position? Are you putting
Speaker 2: the kicker in defense? No, know your team. Your Western
Speaker 2: doctors are great at diagnosing mostly er your heart attack,
Speaker 2: you broke your leg, stitch you up, give me a
Speaker 2: life saving pancreas surgery, and diagnosing and prescribing, prescribing, very
Speaker 2: good at prescribing. I mean they yes, it's a big
Speaker 2: part of their their medical meeting, and so we love
Speaker 2: them for what they're great at. Where they're weaker is
Speaker 2: healing and getting to the root cause of something. They're
Speaker 2: great at the band aids.
Speaker 1: And stuff, and in typically nutrition they spend about an
Speaker 1: hour of med school.
Speaker 2: Yes, on nutrition, and Hippocrates said, the father of medicine said,
Speaker 2: let food be thy medicine. Why are we forgetting that?
Speaker 2: So if you get a natural it doesn't make money.
Speaker 2: This is true.
Speaker 1: That's a whole different that's a different podcast for a
Speaker 1: different time.
Speaker 2: So get a naturopath on board. Yes, who's going to
Speaker 2: spend two hours with you in an appointment and go
Speaker 2: to the root cause of why you're having diest of
Speaker 2: issues and if you're having excuse me, forgive me. Diarrhea
Speaker 2: and flatulence and all that stuff, and gas and bloating.
Speaker 2: None of that is normal. So you need to go
Speaker 2: talk to a doctor. And so that's my formula.
Speaker 1: God, that is huge. I love it. By the way,
Speaker 1: the passion behind everything you're talking about I love as well.
Speaker 1: Before we go and we could go on for days
Speaker 1: on this. I do love the quote that no one's
Speaker 1: coming for you, you got to do this yourself. At
Speaker 1: the same time, I have to imagine that Kevin, your husband,
Speaker 1: who has been there every step of the way, must
Speaker 1: be a rock.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was. And you know who was unexpectedly a
Speaker 2: rock was my dad. I don't want to tell my
Speaker 2: dad because he had been through hell already. The last
Speaker 2: thing I wanted to be like, oh, by the way,
Speaker 2: now I have the other worst thing in the world, like.
Speaker 1: His two girls, is you know two loves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really, really rough and so but you
Speaker 2: know what was amazing is he handled it so well.
Speaker 2: He was such a rock, and it was what I
Speaker 2: really needed. I needed to really get to be the
Speaker 2: daughter and be taken care of. And I gave him
Speaker 2: that that gift. A lot of us always try to
Speaker 2: protect our parents now I think it's like the trend right, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I now gave him the gift to be able
Speaker 2: to be a dad and take care of me, and
Speaker 2: I got that great gift right back. So it was amazing.
Speaker 2: And Kevin one hundred percent total rock, not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: This one really frightened him. He was really scared, and
Speaker 2: we were having conversations about how I wanted Athena raised
Speaker 2: because we were so afraid in the first week when
Speaker 2: we were waiting for information. But at some point he
Speaker 2: shifted as well, and he was like, you're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, are you sure, And he's like, yes,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're gonna be good. He's like, probably gonna
Speaker 2: need surgery, but you're gonna be good. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: but are you sure.
Speaker 1: He sounds like a wonderful guy, and I want it.
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you back on again because the
Speaker 1: podcast is Heal Squad by the way, with Mariamo Nunos,
Speaker 1: and this consider this a band aid of getting you
Speaker 1: on this path. This was a small band aid on
Speaker 1: a bullet hole. For the rest of this please go
Speaker 1: to Heal Squad. And I agree. You are the sum
Speaker 1: total of the five best friends around you. You are
Speaker 1: the sum total of what you surround yourself with. Listen
Speaker 1: to people that believe in healing and proactive maintenance and medicine,
Speaker 1: and I totally agree.
Speaker 2: So I won't ever just give into the diagnosis. I
Speaker 2: always say, like, you don't know the story's ending, so
Speaker 2: why are you creating it by catastrophizing. Believe in hope,
Speaker 2: believe in possibility. Okay, and if you're wrong, and you
Speaker 2: know now you're that person that made the mistake, to
Speaker 2: believe like you went through it with in a much
Speaker 2: more peaceful way. And I read this really great quote
Speaker 2: in a book recently. I'm going to have this guest
Speaker 2: on my show, and she said, when they say it's incurable,
Speaker 2: it just means they haven't found a medicine that goes
Speaker 2: with it yet. So we are healing unhealable things all
Speaker 2: the time. I've already done it. I got sidetracked with
Speaker 2: this whole thing, and I'm getting back on it, and
Speaker 2: eventually I'll tell the story of a miraculous healing that
Speaker 2: did take place. And I'm already reversing all the conditions
Speaker 2: that I've got. The autoimmune stuff are all reversing based
Speaker 2: on the circadian rhythm, the blue light glasses and all
Speaker 2: the different healing things that I'm doing, and so healing
Speaker 2: is possible. So just remember that.
Speaker 1: Healing is possible. I love that, Maria men who knows.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I really appreciate the time, and
Speaker 1: we will do this again soon.
Speaker 2: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most
Speaker 1: dramatic pod ever, and make sure to write us a
Speaker 1: review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: next time.