By Lucie M. Winborne, ReMIND Magazine
“Frankly, I’ve never considered my own figure so exceptional; until quite recently, I seldom gave it any thought at all.”
Believe it or not, that quote came from Marilyn Monroe.
Still considered the quintessential sex symbol more than 50 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe didn’t rely on sweaty gyms, fad diets or pills to maintain her hourglass shape. Of course, it could be argued that God gave her an extra advantage at birth, but there’s also no doubt that she made the most of it.
At 5 feet, 6 inches tall and a weight range of 115 to 140 pounds, the actress followed a high-protein, low-carb eating plan combined with 10 minutes of weight-lifting per day, in stark contrast to the two-hour routines and low-calorie diets espoused by today’s celebrities.
And in those 10 minutes, she took a relatively relaxed approach to working out, confessing to Pageant magazine in a 1952 spread that, “I don’t count rhythmically like the exercise people on the radio; I couldn’t stand exercise if I had to feel regimented about it.”
Nor did Monroe enlist any kind of personal trainer, telling Pageant that she had “evolved my own exercises, for the muscles I wish to keep firm, and I know they are right for me because I can feel them putting the proper muscles into play as I exercise.”
Her routine was simple: 15 reps each of lifting 5-pound weights above her head from different angles, followed by moving the weights in circles with her arms at a 45-degree angle from the floor until she tired. Although she also enjoyed horseback riding and light jogging, Monroe was not athletic, saying she had never really cared for outdoor sports and had no interest in excelling at tennis, swimming or golf: “I’ll leave those things to the men.”
While admitting that some of her peers labeled her diet bizarre, the actress herself doubted whether “a doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry.” Said breakfast consisted of two raw eggs whisked into a glass of warm milk and a multi-vitamin. She then skipped lunch, and for her “startlingly simple” dinner, stopped at a market near her hotel, where she bought a protein-rich meat like steak, lamb or liver, to broil in her room’s electric oven. Four or five raw carrots rounded out the meal.
“My biggest single concern used to be getting enough to eat. Now I have to worry about eating too much,” she told Pageant. But she did confess to one less-healthy indulgence — evening stops at a local ice-cream parlor for a hot fudge sundae after her drama classes.
As one fitness expert has noted, “You can’t outwork a bad diet.” Monroe’s frequent consumption of some of nature’s most nutritionally dense foods trumps many of the synthetic “health” products consumed by continuously dieting Americans nowadays. And while her routine might not be for everyone, when it came to fitness, Marilyn proved she was no dumb blonde.
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