Christie Brinkley shares details of brutal diet she followed to maintain trim figure

Christie Brinkley has shared details of the brutal diet she used to subject herself to in order to maintain a trim figure. The 71-year-old American star is one of the most iconic models of the past fifty years.

She has featured on the cover of Swimsuit Issues - making history as the first to appear on three consecutive covers in 1979, 1980, and 1981. She was also the face of CoverGirl for a generation of girls and women - and worked with major brands including Max Factor, Revlon, and

Last month, fans of got to know about her unlike ever before as she shared details of her life in her autobiography; Uptown Girl: A Memoir. Through the pages of her book, she shared details about her life and career - and also shared her disbelief over the lengths she would go to in order to remain slim.

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Through her memoir, Christie share details for her diary entries from the 1970s where she kept a record of what she was eating. On one date, her diet included a sugar-free digestive cookie, 0% fat yogurt, and orange, brown rice, "one bite of Gruyère cheese" and more 0% fat yogurt.

Reviewing her pages, she wrote, per RadarOnline: "I can’t believe that this was my idea of healthy." She added: "But at the time, I was so desperate to fit into designer clothes, which came in only one size when I was a young model: runway size, which was impossibly small.

"The thinner I was, the more likely I would be able to metamorphose into a dress or pantsuit – and the less embarrassed I would likely feel at work.

"Even so, I did a lot of modeling with the zippers open in the back and with photographers asking me to turn this way or that so the camera wouldn’t reveal my jerry-rigged outfit."

Christie owes her modelling career to American photographer Errol Sawyer who first discovered the star when she was aged 19. The photographer spotted the future model while she was in a central téléphonique office in Paris in 1973.

While the star has been in the spotlight for decades, fans have been wowed by her youthful appearance. And in recent weeks, she confirmed she had enjoyed some cosmetic procedures over the years.

Opening up to People magazine last month, she said, "I mainly do lasers. I don't try to get rid of every wrinkle. I've dabbled with fillers and I go to my doctor in the city. I don't want to look 'done' or anything."

Last year, the American star revealed she had been diagnosed with skin cancer. She told People, "I just did Fraxel (a skin resurfacing treatment) because I had skin cancer and that helps get rid of pre-cancerous cells. It's mainly about health for me now."

Reflecting on her career, she said, "I was literally told you will be chewed up and spit out by 30.

"I stood at the top, thinking I've never felt better in my life. And that's when I decided to kiss the numbers goodbye because I wasn't going to let them define me."

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