Pat Boone Enjoys More Muscle, Less Milk

The same questions kept popping up after people learned that I’d interviewed Pat Boone in his office on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Might as well get those out of the way. Then we’ll let the pop singer--with more than 40 years in the biz--tell us about his fitness routine: tennis and the gym.

No, he didn’t wear leather, but workout gear.

No, he wasn’t wearing white bucks. He had on gym shoes.

Yes, he still drinks milk, but less of it and it’s skim.

Yes, he did have a couple of big hits, “Love Letters in the Sand” and “April Love.”

Now let’s move on to Boone’s workout. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife of 45 years, Shirley. They have four children and 15 grandchildren. The 6-foot-tall Boone is 64.

Question: Let’s start with the tennis.

Answer: I play three days a week--Monday, Wednesday, Friday--over at the Bel-Air Country Club with my radio producer, Ed Lubin (“The Pat Boone Show” airs on KFFG-FM 96.3). He’s about three years younger than I and we play real cutthroat competitive singles tennis. He had been having the time of his life. He had been beating me regularly because I hurt my knee. The cartilage is compressed.

Q: Ouch. What are you doing for that?

A: I’m exercising. I’m building up the muscles below and above the knee and the interior muscles--exercycle, stair stepper and standing on my toes and going up and down on my toes. Now we have a more competitive thing happening and it’s because, I guess, the combination of injections [for cartilage problems in his left knee] and the strengthening of the muscle. And then Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, that’s when I work out at the gym--late afternoon--with weights. And Sunday, take it easy.

Q: What happens at the gym?

A: I’ll get a very good pump and a very good all-over workout from abs to leg raises and full body pull-ups and curls and rowing. I mean, I just go right from machine to machine and stick with it. I can get a real good workout in 20 to 25 minutes.

Q: Tell me about your diet.

A: Actually, for 20 years, my dad and I both have been starting the day with lemon juice--fresh lemon juice in a 6- or 8-ounce glass of water, and I make sure it’s warm water. I’ll do it maybe four or five mornings a week and some freshly ground coffee and then I have my soup and I take my vitamins. My breakfast is generally vegetable soup. I always was a cereal guy. I wanted the fiber . . . but if you eat plenty of vegetables you’ll get plenty of fiber. Not everybody wants soup for breakfast but, boy, I’ll eat a nice big pipin’ hot bowl of soup and it takes the place of cereal.

Q: Do you eat lunch?

A: I’ll have a little salad for lunch if I want lunch. But if I’m home and I’m doing mail and stuff, I can have a nice, fresh, crisp green salad. That’ll hold me till dinner time. Then I’ll have fish or lamb chops. My typical dinner will be tuna or salmon or swordfish or chicken or turkey or once in a while beef or lamb. And I’ll have a good, big salad. So now after dinner, I’m off pies, cakes until I get my weight down because I love sweets. I will let myself have a couple pieces of See’s candy or I’ll have Popsicle, “fruitsicle,” two or three in a night. My wife and kids tease me. I can make a Popsicle last a long time. I can make it last 20 minutes.

Q: What’s your weight?

A: I gain because of the knee and not being able to run like I had been. I’d always bragged about being only less than 10 pounds over my high school graduation weight, 172, and I never got over 182 and usually hovered in the high 170s. My birthday was June 1 and on my birthday, no cake, no ice cream. I was 192 1/2. Now I weigh 181. I’d like to get to be 178.

Q: What do you drink with your meals?

A: I drink Dr. Pepper or wild cherry Pepsi.

Q: No milk?

A: I cut way down on milk. People say, “Don’t you still drink a lot of milk?” Well, no. I advertised milk for years. Love it. We still keep 2% or skim milk in the refrigerator. I still believe in milk for calcium and the other things but you gotta cut down on the butterfat. But nothing quite takes its place really.

Guest Workout runs weekly in Health.