Elizabeth Banks, although perhaps not a name that rings any bells with many, is the perfect example of gorgeous woman who is all the more lovable and popular because she doesn’t take her good looks too seriously. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect features and a body to kill for, the actress knows she’s beautiful but also very open about the pains she goes through to look this good, as How Celebrities Lose Weight can confirm.

For starters, the 35-year-old star has often spoken about how she too, just like almost every other woman on the face of this planet, has moments when she’s not happy about her looks. It’s her chest, tummy or backside that she would like to change, though, she says, but rather her weight and height. Since she can’t do anything about the latter, she makes sure she keeps the former in check by staying very active yet, surprisingly enough, avoiding going to the gym if she can.

“I really believe you have to make time for it, but I also know how hard it can be to find time to get to the gym and keep up with it. The idea of getting in the car and driving to the gym and finding parking – it’s just not happening, because the whole thing could be a two-hour endeavor. I try to make it as easy for myself as possible,” Banks once said. With this in mind, the last time she had her home renovated, she made sure she had a gym built in too, so that the only thing she needs is the will to go inside it and get to work.

Still, she avoids fitness and Pilates because of her past experiences. “I can’t stick with [group fitness] long enough to really learn the moves. I’ll be in the back, with mirrors all around, and when everyone else’s hands are down, mine are up. Theirs go up, and mine go down. I just start laughing at myself and end up in a giggle fit, on the ground, laughing for the whole second part of the class. […] A Pilates machine looks like a torture machine, and it’s really hard. I’ve done it twice, and my stomach hurt for four days afterward,” she says.

Because of this, she sticks to routines that she’s already tried and that have suited her just fine, like an intense workout on the treadmill, exercises devised by her personal trainer using weights and free weights. When she’s not inside her personal gym breaking a sweat, Banks can be found with her husband on the tennis court or hiking near her Los Angeles house.