“It's really tough," Tara, 47, told PEOPLE at the Project Angel Food Angel Awards.

"They call it the ‘World’s Toughest Test’ [for a reason]," she said.

Even though the American Pie star watched season 1 of the Fox competitive reality series and thought there was “no way” she would ever do it, she told PEOPLE that the network “convinced [me] at the last minute."

As a result, the actress says she "didn't have the training like everyone else did. So it was a lot harder on me."

“I’m at a place right now [where] I want to do something like this,” she told PEOPLE about competing in the show, which premieres Monday on Fox.

“You're home so much in your own house, you get depressed,” she said. “So doing something like this was a great challenge for me and it was an experience I'll never forget and I would never take it back. Even though you watch it, you'll think I'm insane."

Tara is best known for playing the role of Vicky in the films American Pie (1999), American Pie 2 (2001), and American Reunion (2012), and Bunny Lebowski in The Big Lebowski (1998).