Marilyn Monroe's bizarre diet and exercise routine revealed

Marilyn Monroe eating breakfast in bed
Monroe's diet was extremely strange, especially her milk and egg breakfast. Photo credit: Getty

Marilyn Monroe was a bombshell of her time - to this day considered one of the sexiest stars of the silver screen.

But the Some Like it Hot star's slightly strange food and exercise routine in the September 1952 edition of Pageant magazine was recently dug up by Elle, and it might not be what you'd expect from a '50s film star.

"Frankly, I've never considered my own figure so exceptional; until quite recently, I seldom gave it any thought at all," Monroe explained in the article, entitled 'How I Stay in Shape'.

"My biggest single concern used to be getting enough to eat. "

In one of the stranger recipes, Monroe described her liquid breakfast consisting of two raw eggs poured into a glass of warm milk.

"I've been told that my eating habits are absolutely bizarre, but I don't think so. Before I take my morning shower, I start warming a cup of milk on the hot plate I keep in my hotel room," she said.

"When it's hot, I break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them while I'm dressing. I supplement this with a multi-vitamin pill, and I doubt if any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry."

Marilyn Monroe's bizarre diet and exercise routine revealed
Photo credit: Pageant via Elle.

Monroe also said she never dined out, even while travelling. Instead she'd stop at a market near her hotel for steak, liver or lamb chops, which she'd broil herself using an electric oven.

"I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots."

So far, so paleo.

Exercise-wise, the star didn't slog it out with jogging or aerobics. Instead she perfomed "a simple bust-firming routine," which consists of lifting 2kg weights above her head, while lying on the floor.  I do this 15 times, slowly. Then, with my arms at a 45-degree angle from the floor, I move my weights in circles until I'm tired."

"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."

Monroe was also apparently a big advocate of 'treating herself'.

"It's a good thing, I suppose, that I eat simply during the day, for in recent months I have developed the habit of stopping off at Will Wright's ice cream parlour for a hot fudge sundae on my way home from my evening drama classes," she revealed. 

"I'm sure that I couldn't allow myself this indulgence were it not that my normal diet is composed almost totally of protein foods."

Newshub.