4 months ago
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In yet another blow for us Millennials having to acknowledge how old the things we grew up with are, Laguna Beach turns 20 this fall. I watched the first season of that show in the background when my college roommates had it on, but I got the gist of it and knew all the players and their drama. It was the same with the early seasons of The Hills. (I kept up with later seasons through gossip blogs lol.) Gosh, that all feels like a completely other lifetime ago at this point.
In honor of the 20th anniversary, USA Today did an interview with Lauren “Lo” Bosworth. Lo has been busy in the years following The Hills ending. She wrote a book, had a YouTube channel, graduated from the International Culinary Center, started a podcast, and founded a wellness brand called Love Wellness. Love Wellness is her primary focus these days. You may be familiar with its Bye Bye Bloat digestive health gummies. (My sister likes them; I had no idea it was Lo’s company until now.) During the interview, Lo talked about processing her time on reality TV in a healthy way, her dream alternate career path, and her very thorough wellness routine, which includes a lot of bathing, walking, and sleeping.
She knows reality TV has given her a lot of privilege: “I have developed a much healthier relationship with my own reality TV experience than the one I had a number of years ago. I think right when I came off the show, there was definitely some trauma that we all had to work through. I think it’s not normal to be on TV, to have millions of people see you, and to have to absorb all of that energy and their opinions can be challenging. As I have grown into an adult, I think I have a much better perspective on it. I’m able to understand how the experience has benefited me to a degree that I can’t even really communicate, (and) the amount of privilege that I have on every single day because of the show.”
She starts her day with a walk: “When I first wake up in the morning, I have a puppy and so we always get out there for a nice walk around a couple of blocks. One of the reasons I got my dog was to improve my mental health and wellbeing, and it really just helps you so much. Having a reason to get up and get out of the house every day because of that little doggie has really fundamentally changed my life for the better.
Next up, coffee and cottage cheese: “I always start my day with a coffee of some kind. My go-to coffee is just drip coffee with half and half, and heavy on the half and half. I’ve done every kind of diet you possibly could. What really works for me is focusing on high protein with healthy carbohydrates. I typically have cottage cheese with a little bit of toast on the side, or cottage cheese with some fruit thrown in (or) vegetables thrown in. You could do cottage cheese 100 different ways. My favorite way is cottage cheese with sliced cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber, some everything bagel seasoning on top and a little drizzle of olive oil. Delicious.”
She unwinds with hours of self-care: “When I come home, that’s when I really lean into my wellness hours. Not minutes, not an hour: hours. Truly most of the evening is spent on wellness in some capacity. I’m a big fan of either an ‘everything shower,’ a really long bath, or sitting in the steam room.” Bosworth, who recently partnered with shave brand BIC Soleil Escape for the launch of their limited-edition 5 Senses Shave Kit, likes her showers to be a total sensory experience, complete with music (ideally country music), eucalyptus wafting through the air and mocktails on hand to enhance the self-care special
She’s a “card-carrying member of the serious bathers club”: “I am also a card-carrying member of like the serious bathers club. I’ll take a bath for an hour. I’ll take a bath before work, I’ll come home and take a bath after work. I’m all about hydrotherapy in any form.”
She sleeps 10 hours every night: Bosworth also indulges in the luxury many are unable to master: sleep. “My best tip is get as much sleep as possible. I get 10 hours of sleep every single night. I make it a priority. I’m like, ‘It’s 9 o’clock, it’s time to get into bed and it’s time to put my phone down.’ I am a master at putting down my phone.”
She would have loved to be a doctor: “If I could go back in time and I was never on a reality TV show, I would have been a doctor,” Bosworth says. Her reality background, however, helped provide the platform to create her women’s wellness brand, Love Wellness, which helped launch a conversation (and products, her favorite of which is Bye Bye Bloat) around women’s health that wasn’t being had at a mainstream level in 2016. “I got laughed at, criticized, made fun of,” Bosworth says, but “I’m deeply, deeply passionate about health care for women.”
Well, dang. Taking hours-long baths or showers *and* getting 10 hours of sleep every night? To this tired, busy mama, that sounds like living in a fancy hotel and spa every single day, lol. Though, if I’m being honest, bath tubs gross me out to the point where I couldn’t even get over myself to use the indoor hot tub during my honeymoon. A nice long shower sounds amazing, though. No wonder the woman left California for New York City. That water usage wouldn’t fly on the West Coast! If she really does bathe for hours every single day, that’s a huge waste of water.
As for her 10 hours of sleep per night, that is also something I cannot even imagine. Sadly, I’ve always been a six-to-seven hours a night kinda sleeper. I wish I could sleep more, but whenever I do, I end up even more tired and groggy than if I don’t get a lot of sleep. Does that happen to anyone else? I’ll wake up naturally earlier in the morning feeling rested but make myself go back to sleep. Even if it’s just for another hour, I then wake up exhausted. Or, if I happen to sleep for eight+ hours straight, I find myself more tired the next day. I’m so envious of all of you 10-hours per night people. Teach me your secrets.
