Health & Beauty
In between holding down a nine-to-five, navigating the daily grind, and maintaining a social life, our health and fitness can take a backseat.
I mean, who wants to hit the gym after a long, hard day at work? And preparing a nutritionally balanced meal seems like such a chore when the microwave-meal aisle beckons so sweetly.
Of course, we shouldn't feel pressured to conform to specific diets and exercise routines, but for those looking to improve their general wellbeing - and physique to boot - then taking some tips from the musical, and all around pop-culture icon, Cher, may help.
Cher revealed last year that she could still plank for five minutes - she was 71-years-old at the time. So just how has she managed to stay incredibly fit over the years?
She reportedly sticks to a mostly vegetarian diet, telling Hello! magazine, "I don't like meat and so most of things that I like are healthy for you".
Cher also rarely drinks, and doesn't smoke or take drugs;
"There are things I don't like that are unhealthy, like drugs and drinking, so I never got into them tobegin with. I smoked cigarettes for a while and I'd have done drugs had I liked them, but they didn't agree with me. I'll only drink three of four times a year too."
She claims to have learned what foods work and don't work for her:
"Dairy products are not good for us. I weaned myself from whole milk to nonfat milk — if I'm having milk at all. I think cheese is one of the worst things for the body. It doesn't digest well, and most cheeses are too high in fat and cholesterol."
Cher is partial to a good bingeing session from time to time, however.
"I have had some bad binges while making movies. At the end of The Witches of Eastwick, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and I really went crazy. We'd go from one of our trailers to the other stuffing ourselves with Pepperidge Farm Cheddar Cheese Goldfish, M&Ms, Cokes and Hershey's Kisses," she wrote. "Then Michelle and I found out we could microwave sweet potatoes in four minutes, and that changed our entire lives. We lived on sweet potatoes, baked potatoes and Caesar salads."
Recently, Cher has been focusing on consuming certain foods. "I've been concentrating on eating the foods that Robert [Haas] has stressed as being terrific: brown rice (not white rice), legumes — lentils, pinto, navy, lima and kidney beans—vegetables, pastas, fruit," she explained.
"Pastas give me a lot of energy, and so do fruits like bananas, papaya and nectarines, because they have a lot of sugar but it isn't refined."
In regards to her exercise regimen, Cher told Hello! "I exercise about five times a week because it's something I've always done and I just enjoy it."
And she's recently taken up surfing too, speaking to E! News, she said "When I was young I was a tomboy. I played sports ... And I'm learning to surf right now. I like that kind of stuff, thank God."
One thing is for sure, 72 never looked so good.