Oftentimes a social media persona is far removed from real life—there’s a reason “Instagram vs reality” turned into an overused meme. But when it comes to Busy Philipps, whose Stories are raw, hilarious, always honest, and have amassed her a devoted 960 million followers, she’s exactly as she seems: funny, smart, and relatable AF. After a sweat sesh, we sat down with the I Feel Pretty star and soon-to-be author to talk about her Wild Wild Country-level devotion to LEKfit, why she, too, still struggles with not feeling guilty about her occasional indulgences, and what “wellness” means to her.
How do you usually start your day?
“I do Bulletproof coffee—I’ve been doing it for a year and a half. That’s what I generally do every morning for breakfast. If there’s a day where I don’t want to do it—a cheat day or whatever—we go to Sqirl, which is a restaurant here in Los Angeles. I get the Sorrel pesto rice bowl. I get the vegan one, and then I add an egg. [laughs] It’s pesto rice with a ton of kale on top of it, and a perfectly poached egg. And then the hot sauce that she makes at Sqirl. That to me is the best breakfast ever.”
What’s LEKfit’s secret sauce for making you a cult follower?
“I know, it’s crazy, I do it every single day. Part of it is that Lauren is incredibly infectious in her energy and her whole vibe. And I’ve known her for many years because I trained with her years ago at another gym.
“Are these the Adam Selman [x Le Specs] glasses? I have the white ones. I feel like I need the black ones. I feel like the white ones are just too much. Do you know what I mean? I’m not Gigi Hadid. I feel like it’s a lot of look for me. Can I try these on?
“So Lauren is infectious. I love her energy, and the truth is... Hold on, I’m going to look. [Tries on sunglasses] Oh yeah, they look pretty good. I know that Kanye is really pushing us to wear small glasses this season, but I have such a big face. Like, I need big glasses.”
[Laughs] These go out wide enough you can get away with it. And they’re in between—they’re small, but not so thin:
“They’re amazing. The black ones are always sold out.”
That’s why I had to buy three pairs. I damaged one; tried to find them on eBay, ended up getting scammed; then found a pair in a random shop in Toronto. I’ve had such bad luck:
“I have the white ones. Maybe I’ll break them out.”
Do it!
“So back to LEKfit—there’s something about the trampoline, which is low-impact. Look, I’m not going to lie, I’m getting older, I used to run, I used to do indoor cycling every day, and my body just started to break down. My hips hurt. My knees hurt. My shoulder hurt. I was noticing all these things. When I switched over and was exclusively doing LEKfit, not only did my body change in a good way… I get sore muscles when the workouts are intense and hard, but my joints—my hips and my knees—the tramp alleviated the stress on them for me. I need an intense cardio endorphin rush every morning. I love it. It really gets my day straight.”
Your pronunciation of LEKfit has taken over…
“Lauren makes fun of me—all the things I say. The people in the world are like, ‘They call it LEKfit.’ She wanted it to be called L-E-K-fit. I’m like, ‘I’m sorry. I’m your spokesperson, and it’s LEKfit.’ And girls come here from all over the world—from seeing it on my Instagram—and they’re like, ‘Oh, is this LEKfit?’ And Lauren’s like, ‘It’s L-E-K-fit, Busy.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s too bad. You should’ve told me that two years ago.’ [Laughs]”
Are there any moves that you loathe but do anyway?
“There are definitely some leg series moves—because you wear ankle weights—that are really, really hard. I find the disc program—sliding on the discs on the floor—to be very difficult. That is always when I feel like my inner thighs, especially, are just done for days. And I have a hard time carrying my daughter up the stairs, and she insists to be carried up the stairs.”
And have you found any other sneaky ways to stay active?
“I get a lot [of] natural exercise running around with my kids and playing with them, which I think is really important. Even at the playground. You can choose to sit on the bench and look on Instagram, which is totally viable for parents—you need a break. But you can also run around on the jungle gym equipment, and you can bring a ball and play soccer with your kids, or do any number of things. You know, I’m not judgmental. Whatever people need in their lives is fine, but I find that that’s a really great way to get natural exercise. I’ve tried to take my daughters hiking with me, and they’re just not interested at all.
“My older daughter does indoor rock climbing now. She’s begging me to come do it with her, but I’m very committed to my long fingernails. Yesterday she was like, ‘Mom, please, I really want you to do indoor rock climbing with me.’ And I’m like, ‘Girlfriend, this manicure is not free, and I can’t. It’s going to ruin my nails. It’s not my exercise.’ [Laughs]”
How old is Birdie?
“She’s nine and a half—going on forty. She’s amazing. I try to encourage my girls to be active in whatever way pleases them. Birdie is not a team-sport kid. It’s like trial and error finding what works for you. That’s true of everyone in the world. Indoor rock climbing is her jam. With me, it’s the same thing. It was trial and error for so long, and then I found LEKfit, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is my thing. This is the thing I do.’”
What does wellness mean to you?
“It’s feeling great about yourself and in your body, and doing things that help make you feel really good about yourself.”
Do you have any wellness regrets?
“Oh my god, when I was in college, my roommate, Tina, and I tried to do this thing that she found called the Hot Dog Diet [Laughs].”
Wait, what? You have to tell me what that is:
“It was so disgusting. I don’t remember the details because this was 20 years ago, but I know that it involved eating hot dogs and beets. It was so disgusting. We tried to do it, but I think I bailed after three days. We were supposed to lose 10 pounds in a week. I regret ever buying into any of those things. I think you really fall into that track in your teens and your 20s because you desire quick results. I still struggle with moderation and not feeling bad. For instance, we got In-N-Out because Adam Rippon was talking about how he and Mirai—another ice skater—were super depressed in 2014 because neither of them made the team, so they got In-N-Out and sat on her roof and basically cried together. And after he told that story, all I could think about was eating In-N-Out [Laughs]. So last night we got it, and afterwards I was like, ‘Ugh, I shouldn’t have done that. That’s not the greatest.’ And then I was like, ‘In-N-Out—it’s once a month, or whatever. It’s not going to kill me.’ I need to remember that. I’ll go get my stupid salad today with protein.”
You’ve definitely discovered the secret formula to Instagram stories; why do you think that is?
“Truly, it’s intuitive. I only try to share things that I think would be interesting to other people. And I also try to keep my privilege in mind, and that’s why people find it relatable. I’m not showing you the multi-million-dollar renovation on my home, or whatever. Not that I’m having one, but you know what I mean. Certain people I want that from. There are certain celebrities that you want to see the opulence from, and I’m not one of them. I remember I got these Gucci sneakers last year, and I loved them, but that’s not for my audience. My audience doesn’t care that I just spent that much money on a pair of sneakers. In fact, they would think that’s gross. That’s not relatable for them, so I won’t post stuff like that.”
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