Walk with us! Sign up for our free Start TODAY newsletter to join the walking club with Al Roker and receive daily inspiration sent to your inbox. Then, join us on the Start TODAY Facebook group for tips and motivation, to connect with others following the plan, and to get real-time advice from trainer Stephanie Mansour!
Stephanie Mansour is a familiar face: She has been designing monthly fitness plans for TODAY for years, plus sharing workouts and tips on the show and leading our Start TODAY walking club alongside Al Roker.
But this week she officially joined the family as our TODAY Fitness Contributor! Expect even more workout routines, exercise how-tos, live workouts and Q&A’s with our very own personal trainer and weight-loss coach on tap.
Showing people that they don’t need to become gym rats or get a six pack in order to be the best version of themselves is very important to me.
Stephanie Mansour
"My passion is helping our viewers regain control of their health and fitness. Showing people that they don’t need to become gym rats or get a six pack in order to be the best version of themselves is very important to me," said Mansour. "I’m half Italian and half Lebanese, so food is a huge part of my culture on both sides of the family. I believe in enjoying food, enjoying the body you’re living in and doing what makes you feel good! That’s why I am so excited by the tens of thousands of viewers that are working out with me and on the way to living healthier lives everyday through our Start TODAY monthly workouts."
Ready to get moving with Steph? Check out the 30-day walking and stretch plan Mansour designed for September — and join her in the Start TODAY Facebook group. She will be checking in daily sharing motivation, answering your questions, leading live workouts and cheering you on.
Mansour also recently adopted another new title — fiancé!
Under the guise of attending a business dinner in northern Michigan, Mansour's boyfriend set up a romantic proposal on a dock on Lake Charlevoix (complete with a photographer disguised as a jet ski repairman!).
“I still don’t know how he got this elaborate proposal by me ... I’m very detail oriented and ask a lot of questions, so the fact that he orchestrated a romantic proposal and had our families fly in from across the country without me sniffing out a single detail is absolutely incredible!" she said.
Unknowingly living right across the street from each other in downtown Chicago, it wasn't until they matched on a dating app that the pair met. "He really began stealing my heart during the pandemic when I refused to see him unless we sat six feet across from each other — and instead of insisting on holding my hand or a kiss goodbye, at the end of one of our dates he unexpectedly put his jacket over his head and asked to give me a hug. Essentially, he masked up his entire face! I loved how much I felt his respect for me, and I respected him even more because of it,” she said.
The road to true love was a long one for Mansour, who said she has been navigating the dating pool for more than 10 years.
“Through a lot of prayer, bad dates, unfulfilled relationships, frustration, and even relationship experts, I finally found my man," said Mansour. "It wasn’t as quickly as I wanted it to be, as early in life as I wanted it to be, or how I had always imagined it would be (I used to think meeting on an app was so unromantic!), but it was all in God’s perfect timing, and I could not be happier to be Nicholas’ fiancé and for him to be my best friend."
Like a true wellness coach, Mansour draws parallels between the journey of finding love and health. "We may not always 'get it right,' but we keep going. We discover more about ourselves — what we like, what we don’t like, what we need. We commit to ourselves and have to commit to choosing ourselves day in and day out," she said. "Even through setbacks, bad breakups, doubts and asking 'why not yet?' I continued believing that the best was yet to come. Patience is not my virtue, nor is it many of ours when we’re trying to get healthier or lose weight, but having faith is. And that steadfast belief in being able to experience the kind of love that I knew was possible and that I wanted is what kept me going for all these years — ultimately, to my one true love.”
