Cher just turned 75, and the Goddess of Pop celebrated her birthday in quarantine as best as she could: with an outdoor party featuring masks, gloves, and social distancing. “Not easy!” Cher tweeted on Thursday. “Hope we did it right. A million things you’re used to doing that you can’t do.” We totally hear you, Cher.
Even though Cher rose to stardom in her early 20s after Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe topped the charts—she’s not slowing down just yet. Several decades later, she continues to sell out solo shows worldwide as one of the most successful entertainment figures of all time.
Now, at 75, Cher maintains the same vibrant, youthful energy as she did more than 50 years ago when she was an aspiring performer. Her iconic show attire has featured skin-tight leotards, sheer, lacey fabric, and knee-high stilettos—even to this day. The way she moves on stage is nothing less than impressively athletic, and it has left many of us wondering how she does it.
Well, we did some digging to find out all of her diet, skin care, and fitness secrets—and apparently a five-minute plank is involved. Here’s how Cher looks so young at 75.
Walking in 5-inch heels is difficult enough, but imagine strutting around a huge stage in them while singing and dancing at 75. While Cher makes being fit look easy, she works hard to maintain her physique. She told Hello! Magazine that she works out five days per week with a trainer who doesn’t let her “play the age card.”
She admitted to E! Online in 2010, though, that “you have to work twice as hard” and “be in the gym all the time” as you get older. Oh, and did we mention she can hold a five-minute plank?
She follows a plant-based, dairy-free diet.
It’s not exactly surprising that Cher’s diet doesn’t include greasy bacon or fatty burgers. The Grammy-winner has admitted on Twitter that she avoids ham and red meat. “I don’t like meat and so most of things that I like are healthy for you, apart from desserts.” she told Hello! in 2013.
In her book Cher Forever Fit: The Lifetime Plan for Health, Fitness, and Beauty, the star outlines her strict, low-fat diet. “I try to avoid foods with a high fat content because they make me sluggish and keep my weight up,” she confirms. “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.”
She admitted to snacking on M&Ms and Goldfish while filming movies, but eventually opted to give up junk for healthier options in between takes.
“Michelle [Pfeiffer] and I found out we could microwave sweet potatoes in four minutes, and that changed our entire lives,” she wrote. “We lived on sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, and Caesar salads.”
Brown rice, legumes, vegetables, pastas, and fruit are also on the menu, according to her book. “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.”
