She’s the co-host of The Insider and a lifestyle expert on the Hallmark Channel’s show Home & Family, a bestselling cookbook author, a wife, and a mom to one-year-old daughter, Alexandra Kalliope. And now, Debbie Matenopoulos can add another job to her ever-expanding title: Celebrity judge of Women’s Health Next Fitness Star competition!
This year, we’re thrilled to have Debbie help select America’s next top female fitness instructor. Not only is she a fitness fanatic herself, but Debbie also knows how important it is for trainers to help cultivate the right mindset and motivation in their clients. Here, she chats with WH about her day-to-day routine, how she stays active, and what she’ll be grilling our five finalists on in order to crown a winner! (Want to get in shape, fast? Check out Women's Health's Ignite routine created by last year’s Next Fitness Star Nikki Metzger.)
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What does your typical day look like, and how do you work in fitness?
I wake up between 4:45 and 5 a.m. every day, shower, and get out the door. I hit the ground running: I head straight into hair and makeup, then head to my dressing room where I’ll be prepped for what’s going to be on The Insider that day and get changed. On set, I’ll go over all of my scripts, then do some teasers with Yahoo Live!. Then, we film the show, and as soon as we wrap, I drive over to Universal to shoot Home & Family.
We have rehearsals from 11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m., then we shoot from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. In between takes, you can find me running from one end of the set all the way to my trailer—even in high heels—to do more voiceover work for The Insider. I do that strategically because I figure: You know what? If I’m going to do this, I might as well be exercising. It’s actually become a huge joke on set: They all die laughing, like “Oh my gosh, there she goes! Click-click-click-click.” There are golf carts that could take me, but I’d rather just wear my Fitbit and get as many steps in as I possibly can.
After 5 p.m., I’ll drive home, play with the baby, give her some dinner and a bath, and put her to sleep. That's usually when I’ll go to the gym for about 45 minutes of cardio and stretching. Then, if I don’t make dinner, my husband will. We’ll watch some television, have our time, and then I literally fall into bed.
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Wow, we’d probably crash into bed! How do you stay active on the weekends?
I try to hike Runyon Canyon as much as I can. Even when I was pregnant, I would do it. And I do the hard hike: I’ll go up the side of the mountain and crawl through the brush. If I finish Runyon and I’m not dirty, then I feel like I didn’t really do it.
I also love doing yoga, too. I have a membership at Yoga Works, and I go to their 2-3-Flow class. Difficult yoga is nice for your brain because it completely exhausts you and forces you to think about nothing else except that pose you’re holding for ninety seconds. It clears your mind that way, and by the end, I’m usually so exhausted that I fall asleep during savasana.
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How have your workouts changed over the years?
I played soccer my whole life growing up, and I was also a cheerleader and a gymnast. In my early twenties, when I was living in New York, working at MTV, and going to NYU, I thought that unless I was doing an hour and a half of cardio and weight training in the gym, I wasn’t really doing anything.
But to be completely honest with you, when I started doing yoga, my body transformed! It became 100 times better. I think that’s really a testament to knowing your own body and finding out what works for you, because not every single workout works the same for everyone.
Your arms in particular are killer! Tell us your secrets!
Thank you! Yes, that is from yoga, initially, and lately, because I’ve been running around with an 18-month-old baby who weighs 23 pounds! I mean, any working mom knows not only how hard it is to get back into shape after having a baby, but also how hard it is to devote extra time to your workout once you have the baby. You have this tiny, little, beautiful creature—this being—that’s dependent on everything for you. So you have to get your workouts in whenever you can. I’ll try to do arm presses on the back of my couch, or hold a yoga pose for a minute throughout the day. Nothing that’s going to get me too sweaty, but it’s those small things that really matter.
And also, my husband is great at rock-climbing, so he has taken me out for a few lessons. Listen, I’m, not great, I’m not gonna lie, but it’s really impressive what a few days of rock-climbing can do for your muscles!
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What has your experience been with trainers? Have you ever worked with one?
I have a lot of friends who are trainers, and I’ve worked with a lot in the past. I find that, for me, I don’t need one for the motivation—I am very disciplined. But, I do need someone to tell me what to do, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. When I first started working out, I had no idea what I was doing. But when I did start working with a trainer, he asked me what my fitness goals were, and put me on a path of knowing exactly what to do. He actually made me interested in transforming my body.
What is your fitness motivation?
I have aches and pains from past injuries playing sports when I was a kid, so staying active and fit makes me feel better and gives me a better sense of wellbeing. Second, I love the mental benefits. It really is a great relief and method of relaxation for me. So above and beyond the results you can see, those two reasons alone are worth it. But then, I also do see my clothes fitting better. I see definition in my arms, legs, and stomach, and those changes incentivize me. Finally, I want to be healthy for my daughter. I want to be able to be around for a long time and play with her. If you don’t take care of yourself, and you don’t stay active, you know the saying: Once you don’t use it, you lose it. It’s true.
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What are some of the things you’ll be looking for as you judge the Next Fitness Star finalists?
I think what I’m going to be looking for is, how well can they customize a workout, how accessible are their routines, will everyone be able to do this? How doable is it for working moms? How time-consuming is it? And, at the end, what are the results? And how did their workouts make me feel? I think it’s important to have a sense of accomplishment at the end of a workout—you want to feel like you’ve done something. I want to be sweating.
What resources do you go to now to find new workouts to try?
I love looking at Women’s Health and all of their social media. I also like looking at Fit Girls Worldwide on Instagram. I’m always so impressed by these girls in these 20 to 30 second videos. Like, my gosh, are they impressive! They put the videos to cool music. It totally gets me high and makes me want to try the exercises myself.
