Book Review; Love Yourself Well by Lo Bosworth, CEO and Founder of Love Wellness

10 min readFeb 27, 2023

Valentine’s Day is here and love is in the air.

Especially between my health, my wellness and I.

So what better way to celebrate self-love than by reading Love Yourself Well by Lo Bosworth, CEO and founder of the vaginal health and personal care brand, Love Wellness.

Here is my super honest book review including my main takeaways and slight concerns.

Aesthetic iPad mock-up image of the e-book version cover of the wellness book, Love Yourself Well by Lo Bosworth, founder of Love Wellness.

I’ve been a huge fan of Lo Bosworth since her Laguna Beach days.

Yes, me and Lo go way back, literally back to the beginning — cue Hilary Duff’s one-hit-wonder, “Come Clean!”

She was always my favourite cast member to watch in this OG reality series and obviously on The Hills. And I’m pretty sure she was the first person I followed on Instagram when I first downloaded the app back in 2012. Since then I’ve watched her beauty tutorials on Youtube, listened to her now-ended podcast, Lady Lovin’ and kept up with her business and wellness journey through social media.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying I have a girl crush on her (she’s not Brené Brown) but I do have deep respect and admiration for her.

It’s impressive to see a former reality TV star leverage her platform to raise awareness around health and wellness. Especially around vaginal health which is unfortunately not talked about enough.

And now 19 years on from when Laguna Beach first aired, Lo, is here to “destigmatize the discussion about women’s health care.”

Lo Bosworth founded her “female-first wellness brand”, Love Wellness in 2016 after her own experience with chronic illness.

For years, she suffered from unexplained yeast infections, digestive issues, fatigue, depression, brain fog, anxiety and panic attacks.

She felt like she was on a conveyor belt of doctors who either misdiagnosed her or didn’t take her seriously. In her first book, Love Yourself Well, Lo shares a deeper insight into this “mysterious health problem” and how she eventually overcame it by taking control of her own health and adopting a holistic approach to wellness.

Lo now aims to “help women feel informed, empowered and ready to take full control of their health and wellness.” (Forbes) So what better way to effectively convey your mission than through an insightful book which empowers you to become “an advocate for your own health.”

Let’s dive right in…

“Why was a former reality TV star doing this work? Because others weren’t doing it, and someone had to. I had a platform to tell women what I’d learned while working alongside a team of female experts who provided excellent information and collaborated with me to create safe and effective products. Now I’m completely dedicated to my mission to provide women with the reasoning, science, and information to take control of their intimate health and to ask their medical providers the questions that need to be asked.”
Lo Bosworth | Love Yourself Well

The lowdown on Love Yourself Well

Love Yourself Well by Lo Bosworth is an empowering wellness guide to optimising your health on a holistic level.

The focus is on the gut, brain and vagina which Lo states are all linked as “the health of one depends on the health of the others.”

Lo and her board of health advisors and experts look to answer questions such as:

How does my overall health affect my vaginal health?
Is there a way to heal leaky gut and leaky brain?
Are there supplements and a diet to encourage body harmony?
Is my body normal? What is normal when it comes to sexual wellness?

The book is divided into 4 in-depth sections with the first half delving deeper into the gut-brain-vagina axis, potential issues that can occur with them such as “leaks” and how to get them feeling “happy” again so you can achieve total body harmony.

Once the GBV axis and body systems have been explained, the book then moves on to The Love Wellness Plan

This is a 5-week programme that combines all the information and tips from the book into a simple week-by-week guide for you to implement.

Each weekly plan helps to support homeostasis; whole-body balance, and doesn’t just include nutritional tips but also holistic lifestyle “to-dos” that cover sleep, stress management, movement and sex.

Think of it as more of a cheat sheet guide to heal, reset and improve your body.

The Love Wellness Plan requires you to move away from “nutrient-devoid and ultra-processed foods” in favour of “nutrient-dense whole foods”, make healthy lifestyle changes and establish new habits.

Lo understands that following the plan continuously can be unrealistic as “life” can get in the way, so she recommends doing it every 3 months.

Love Yourself Well also features plenty of healthy food recipes to inspire you to get started on this journey to wellness.

“The gut, brain, and vagina have a partnership, where one keeps the others healthy, and vice versa (times three). These three parts, in three locations, in three systems, are in constant communication with one another and influence how each other functions.”
Lo Bosworth | Love Yourself Well

Is Love Yourself Well easy to read?

In short, yes!

Think of it as a beginner’s guide to nutrition and the body’s systems where everything is broken down in a straightforward and digestible way.

If you aren’t familiar with how the nervous, urinal, endocrine and immune systems work, you definitely will be after reading this book.

Love Yourself Well is also written in a way that anyone can understand.

Lo uses everyday language as a metaphor to explain complex matters in a simple way. For example, she compares a healthy vaginal pH level to “red wine” going as far as revealing that, “It’s more acidic than black coffee and little less than lemon juice.”

It’s a fun and engaging book which includes cheat sheets, yummy recipes, diagrams and implementable tips at the end of each chapter.

There are also true or false quizzes for you to find out whether you have a happy gut, happy brain and happy vagina.

Honestly, what more could you want from a book?

I would however recommend you buy the physical copy.

In my digital nomad era, it’s more practical for me to read e-books on my Kindle app for iPad, so I think my experience was slightly hindered for this book as I didn’t get to appreciate the pretty colour palette and cute graphics.

My 3 biggest takeaways from Love Yourself Well

1 | Explores vaginal health in detail

Are you aware of how complex the vagina is?

Like do you know that the vagina contains more than 100 strains of bacteria, yeast and fungi? Or better yet, the clitoris has 8000 nerve endings which is twice what the penis has.

I’m 32 and before reading this book I knew zero about the vagina.

Vaginal health was never covered at school nor am I learning about it in-depth on my health coaching course.

I can’t help but think that the area still remains rather taboo.

But hey, we shouldn’t be so grossed out about the vagina that we avoid speaking openly and frankly about it. So I praise Lo for confidently addressing vaginal health and bringing it to the forefront.

Within Love Yourself Well, Lo takes us through a thorough and in-depth description of the female genitalia and all its lady parts. To be more specific, the vagina only “refers to the internal elastic muscular canal that extends into the body and ends at the cervix.” There are several external and internal parts that make up the entire female reproductive system.

So if you also need to brush up on your vagina knowledge, then Love Yourself Well offers you a practical guide to follow.

Not only does it break down this complex organ, but it also includes helpful tips on what to avoid during sex (like certain types of sex toys and lube) and when washing your vagina, and what to expect when it comes to maintaining vaginal health.

“It’s not your fault if you’re squeamish about your vagina. But it’s your responsibility to push through shame blocks, to know and love your vagina so it’ll love you back.”
Lo Bosworth | Love Yourself Well

2 | Encourages you to show your vagus nerve some love

Ok, I admit, before reading this book I had no clue what the vagus nerve was. Yes, I’ve heard it mentioned before but I never realised how essential it is to the body’s nervous system.

Every organ that you need to survive is wired into the brain via the vagus nerve.

In short, it’s pretty damn important!

And to keep it healthy, happy and functioning properly, it’s important to show it some love.

So within the 5-week Love Wellness Plan, you are given a daily activity to help stimulate the vagus nerve.

Some of Lo’s top tips include:

Cold water therapy
Deep breathing
Acupuncture
Yoga
Massage
Socialising
Laughter
Healthy diet
Sex

These daily practices are by far the easiest and most realistic to implement within the 5-week plan so why not have some fun and give them a go?

3 | Educates you on the gut-brain-vagina connection

While studying the body for my health course, I was introduced to the gut-brain axis and the connection between our digestive system and the brain. This alone was fascinating but reading about how the vagina is also linked to the gut and brain blew my mind.

It’s incredible to think that the activity in your vagina can affect your brain and gut and that your mental state and gut microbiome can also affect the health of your vagina.

This three-way connection just goes to show how complex the human body is and how important it is to approach wellness in a holistic way.

Because wellness isn’t just about optimising physical health and nutrition.

It’s about so much more including keeping our mental health and well-being in check.

So when approaching your wellness journey, it’s important that you approach it from a holistic level and focus on all areas of your health and well-being rather than just 1 or 2 areas.

“A happy vagina is crucial to your peace of mind, sex life, and physical well-being.”
Lo Bosworth | Love Yourself Well

What I didn’t like about Love Yourself Well

Lo Bosworth is the CEO of a supplement brand so of course her book was going to mention supplements at some point, and how important they are for a balanced diet.

I’m personally sceptical about the efficacy of taking supplements and I don’t think they’re the best solution for everyone.

So if you do end up reading this book, just bear that in mind and research other options first or even talk to your doctor (ironic I know) before choosing to take the supplements mentioned within The Love Wellness Plan.

Everybody and every body is different and I felt as though Lo shared one-size-fits-all advice. How can you recommend that someone take certain supplements or follow a particular diet if you don’t know their health history, preferences or lifestyle, etc?

It just doesn’t work.

I also found The Love Wellness Plan to be unrealistic for the average consumer.

To make the plan more manageable, Lo does introduce one to two new habits and dietary modifications each week. But let’s be real, for someone just starting out on their journey, it may be overwhelming to take on so many changes at once.

Not to mention the cost of what goes into making so many healthy lifestyle and nutritional changes.

I also felt as though this 5-week plan would not be suitable for women with busy schedules or those who are juggling multiple responsibilities, such as children or holding more than one job.

Optimizing your health is a life-long journey that takes time and effort. It is not a quick-fix solution or checkbox item.

And I feel as though this often gets overlooked.

So I can’t stress enough how important it is to start small.

Research shows that it takes approximately 3 weeks to break an old habit, 6 weeks to build a new one, and between 24 to 36 weeks for this new habit to become second nature — as in you do it without thinking.

So maybe it would be more realistic to take one habit from this book and implement that first rather than trying to implement a bunch of different changes all in one go.

This will allow you to establish a new habit first before moving on to the next one making your journey towards better health a heck of a lot more sustainable and manageable.

Final thoughts

Now that I’m mid-way through a health coaching course, I know how important it is to not give direct advice or tell someone what they need to change. Because it is not sustainable.

You need to figure out the answers yourself and find out what works for you.

If you’re extremely serious about making a change in regard to your nutrition and lifestyle, then this book can help support you through this process.

The Love Wellness Plan is designed to rejuvenate your health, and help you go from feeling ”blah” to feeling balanced.

But if you’re not sure where to start with your wellness journey and feel overwhelmed then I suggest getting support from a health coach as they can help you get clear on your wellness goals and provide you with the accountability you need to reach them.

I also recommend that you take the time to figure out your wellness vision so you know what you want to work towards.

Taking advice from a wellness book or from influencers can only ever get you so far as you end up doing what you think you should be doing rather than what you actually want to be doing.

Remember, the key is to always do what is best for you, your needs and your health.

But if there is one thing you do take away from this book, make it this…

The 3 main principles for loving yourself well are:

Listen to your body
Know that it’s all connected
You need to make an effort

Until next week,

♡ Thalia xx

Let me leave you with this one last quote…

“Ultimately, our health is up to us. We have to take control of our own wellness by being informed and pushing back if we feel dismissed. It is within our power to feel good. All we have to do is love ourselves well.”
Lo Bosworth | Love Yourself Well

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