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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.
I had a bout of insomnia last night and got about 2.5 hours of sleep. I am so envious of this right now. It sounds glorious.
Same here. It’s been terrible lately.
If I could change one thing about myself, I’d be one of those people who can nap and fall asleep whenever, wherever. I’m out here turning off screens early, reading a book, sound machine, ear plugs, lavender pillow spray, sleepytime tea, etc. It’s exhausting to be a terrible sleeper!
My first thought is she must not have kids? This is a really interesting way to spend your 24 hours. Good for her—i bet she feels amazing. I also enjoy a good bath a couple of times a week, but I’m in a season of life where 7 hours is a lot of sleep, and hours of self care would mean neglecting my house, husband and kids.
Exactly what I thought, no kids. She can do it! But 10 hours of sleep is too much of life spending sleeping to my taste. I need a few of those hours everday to spend with my husband & kids, which I enjoy and is priceless. I need 30hour days!
No kids here either, just me and my husband, and we both like to get what we refer to as a “tight 9” hours of sleep every night, lol. Sometimes it’s 10. But we also work from home, which means we basically go to bed at 10:00 and wake up at 7:30. It’s a nice life!
Sounds like she’s serious about prioritizing her sleep! I say good for her!
Same here, Rosie!
Now I have to go look up her wellness brand. 🏃🏾♀️
@Rosie @Kebbie – the 8 hour min sleep “requirement” is a fallacy. Different people have different sleep needs ranging from 6-9hours a night. Recent research indicates that people who get less than 6 hours and more than 9 hours have lower health outcomes including life expectancy. Kebbie – insomnia is awful and I have it as well. I’m starting a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia program (CBT-I) based on Harvard research with a 90% success rate, and have been instructed to read “Say Goodnight to Insomnia”. Maybe it would help you too? Sweet dreams! 😌
I’ll have to check that out! Some nights my brain just won’t go to sleep, it’s so frustrating!
She was my least favourite and very unlikable, but they were all so young especially in Laguna Beach,hope she has matured and is nicer,though she sounds out of touch.
Same, I never liked Lo she just always seemed like a total b*tch! Was surprised to see her name pop up her to be honest. I recently did another Hills rewatch, it’s my comfort watch!
Interesting how memories can differ – I distinctly recall Lo being sweet but dim, and thought Heidi and Kristin were the mean ones. I knew someone a few years after the show aired who grew up down the street from Lo and said nobody really called her that but there could only be “one” Lauren (Conrad) and Lo was more or less exactly like she was on the show. They were all high schoolers of course so probably best to extend a lot of grace and acknowledge that at least both Laurens seem to have turned out ok despite it all. (I did not watch The Hills)
Wait. So if she’s going to bed at 9pm, what time does she begin her hours-long self care wind down routine? How long after she gets off work does she have before that starts? It sounds like she has one of those jobs that doesn’t really take up a lot of time, so she can spend all day taking care of herself. Not hating, I would love to have that kind of set up! But it does seem amusingly unrelatable.
It also puts her wake up time at 7 am. Then getting ready for work and having her coffee/breakfast, puts her “clock in” time at what, exactly? She’s definitely living the life, IMO, just not the life most of us have!
Must be nice to have all that time for selfcare!
People really have better skin than mine. Mine would die after hours long bath that often.
It’s not just the having time (and access to excess water!) for all this wellness, it’s the $$. Mocktails, scents, seemingly having a housekeeper who can keep your life clean and organized. Listen, good on her, it truly sounds wonderful to get to relax that much. But it kind of exemplifies everything about the “wellness” industry that gets my hackles up. It’s hyper consumerism and unattainable image standards that keep us in a loop of thinking we are feeding our souls when really we are just feeding a predatory industry. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. I almost preferred the diet culture of the 90’s because at least it didn’t pretend to be something it’s not. Ok, off my soapbox, back to coffee.
lol well she’s not going to make any money if she admits you should just drink water to eliminate bloating!
Isn’t this Dakota Johnson’s routine take lots of long baths and sleep a lot? Good for them, I love to lounge about but am trying to get into my fitness grove. The drizzle olive oil on food is funny to me cause it seems to be everywhere.
I’ve never been very good at sleeping, even though I don’t have kids and work a 40 hour work week with minimal commute time so I have the time for it. I usually get 6-7 hours of sleep but I wish it were more. In addition to insomnia I’m a night owl, I always have been, and my brain just doesn’t want to shut down before midnight. My husband usually falls asleep before me and then I am guilty of spending time on my phone catching up on social media, reading articles or online shopping. I have chronic pain so sometimes I just want something to distract me and where I don’t need to feel like I’m ‘on’ – I can just zone out and forget about things for an hour. I need to work on getting good at putting my phone down and reminding myself an extra hour of sleep is much better than doom scrolling through things I usually don’t even remember the next day.
10 hours of sleep?!?!! I don’t think my body knows how to do that. I have a wind down routine, no phone, drink valerian tea while reading a good book, then I meditate for 30 minutes and pray. Whenever I fall asleep I will automatically wake up 6.5-7 hours later. I don’t need an alarm clock I’m always up by 5:45am. 10 hours sounds outrageous to me but everybody is different 😂
Yes, it’s definitely nice and healthy to be rich and privileged…