I remember the first time I ever saw a Playboy magazine. I was six at the time, and was dying to know what was inside the black wrapping with a bunny on it. I knew I liked the bunny a whole lot — I was a six year old girl, pink bunnies were my thing!

It wasn't until years later that I discovered that beneath the bunny lay perky bosoms and pelvic tilts so exaggerated, you could serve a course at Golden Corral off those flawless asses on a tray!

Playboy models, or "Playmates," are responsible for having some of the finest and best kept bodies in the world. And if you were to ask any Playboy faithful to name the Queen of Playboy, they'd respond with a resounding Lillian Muller — she who alone still holds the record for most covers ever.

In almost every bar in the country, in nearly every convertible of every city, when Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" comes on, few of us aren't brought back to that video — featuring some of the longest legs and tightest buns that have ever existed.

Whenever I see that Chips Ahoy cookie come on my TV rockin' out to Rod Stewart "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" I know I recall a certain sexy someone who graced the screen in both of those videos.

Yup, you guessed it — none other than Lillian Muller.

Well, today I got the chance to interview easily the hottest fifty-plus year old woman on the face of this earth. How hot is she, you ask? Let's just say she recently completed a calendar shoot in which her body is undeniably tighter than most twenty year-olds could ever fathom!

Naturally, I made it a priority to dig down deep in hopes of finding out how the hell she's managed to look so incredible through the years. Without further ado, here's how our conversation went.

Figure Athlete: How did a girl from Norway get into modeling and acting in Hollywood? How did it start?

Lillian Muller: When I was young, I used to collect pictures of movie stars. I'd sit in my room and look at these pictures, and fantasize about one day looking like that, and being one of them.

On my 18th birthday, I found out that my mom had submitted my picture to the Miss Norway Contest. I was the runner up. After that I entered the Miss Beauty International Contest, and again finished second.

A few years later I was dating a British soldier who invited me to come to visit his family in London. While there, we saw an ad for the London Academy of Modeling. We both ended up enrolling, and I graduated as the most promising in my class.

I became a very successful model in London pretty quickly, mainly doing fashion and runway modeling. Then came the offer from the London Sun to be a "Page 3" girl, which was and still is a launching pad for sexy beautiful women.

In the next six months I appeared as the "Page 3" girl four or five times.

An English friend of Hef's who owned the London Playboy Club sent a picture of me to Hef, and within a few months I was on a plane to Chicago to shoot my Playboy Centerfold. The shoot took place at the Playboy Studio, and I lived at the Chicago Playboy Mansion while shooting.

That's how I met Hef. He invited me to fly back to the Mansion in Los Angeles where I lived with him for the following year. Meeting so many movie stars at the mansion had me star-struck; I kept remembering my childhood, when I sat there looking at photos of some of these very people.

Soon after my Centerfold and cover were published, I got a call from the photographer Bruno Bernard of Hollywood, with whom I'd previously worked in London. He said he'd recommended me to one of the top German film directors, who at the time was casting for his next film.

So I flew to Munich to do a screen test for the lead actress role and was offered the role on the spot! I had never even taken an acting lesson in my life, so you can imagine how shocked and delighted I was! The rest is history, but if you're curious, you can read more in Biography and Career Highlights sections of my website.

FA: Amazing! All that, from one picture! Can't really say that I'm surprised. Can you give us a brief rundown of some of your favorite moments in your career?

LM: Coming to America, Living with Hef, becoming Playmate of the Year 1976 — these were all high points for me. But I also starred and costarred with many interesting American actors in American TV.

Costarring with Tom Seleck in the PILOT episode of Magnum PI, and guest starring opposite Pierce Bronson on Remington Steele, are just a couple of instances of the most enjoyable experiences of my career.

FA: With all those stars, parties, and non-stop lifestyle, is it true that you didn't do drugs, didn't drink, and never even smoked? I mean, how did the guys ever get anywhere?

LM: In all of my life, I have never had a cigarette, an alcoholic drink and never tried drugs. People have asked me over the years how I've managed to resist all the temptations, being around so many "jet setters" who constantly drank and did various drugs.

In all honesty, I never even felt tempted because I was uninterested in that type of lifestyle. Growing up, I'd witnessed a lot of tragedy associated with alcohol, and as a little girl, I'd promised myself that I'd never touch the stuff.

Guys were never a problem I was always "in charge" in that department.

FA: Hot! Now, I know that when it came to diet and nutrition, America was a big difference for you from Norway. What were some of the biggest differences, and what kind of an effect did it have on your body?

LM: Just the abundance, selection and availability of food. I came from modest, even poor surroundings, and from a country where there weren't supermarkets on every corner, much less "Natural Food" stores.

My first boyfriend in America was Hugh Hefner. I lived with him through my first year in Los Angeles. My Suite was above the kitchen area and there was only a little staircase that separated me from the biggest refrigerator I'd ever seen in my life!

I could walk right in with a chair, sit down, and eat everything you can imagine for almost half an hour at a time. From King Crab legs, to broiled chicken, delicious slabs of grilled salmon, buckets of peeled shrimp, trays of hardboiled eggs, and just about everything else you could imagine — including roast beef and filet mignon, which were my favorite.

After that, I'd tour the bakery sections of the kitchen and devour German Chocolate Cake, vanilla ice cream, strawberry shortcake, apple pie, and all sorts of cookies and creams. I became best friends with all Hef's butlers and cooks. They helped me get fat very quickly!

Within six weeks I gained twelve pounds, and Hef thought I was going to become the next Jayne Mansfield. He loved me well rounded. Personally, I thought I looked like a Scandinavian Dairy Queen.

At that time, I knew nothing about healthy nutrition, and my eating habits were quite poor. A calorie? I didn't care what a calorie was back then! But I became a very popular playmate because in those days they loved round, soft curves.

FA: So you had quite a change there with the diet, the negative effects starting taking toll correct? Is this when you switch to a Raw Diet?

LM: I've been a vegetarian since I was 27. There was a time a few years after my Playmate of the Year period when I suffered from depression, anxiety and low blood pressure. I was studying acting in Hollywood when my teacher one day said she couldn't teach me due to my lack of concentration.

Part of this was due to my fear of getting older and approaching 30. At that time I thought that was really old! I thought no one would want me anymore and I might as well move back to Norway and marry a farmer. She recommended that I see a holistic doctor by the name of Gene Stanlie.

Dr. Stanlie inspired me to start looking at my life in a different way. In the following months I learned all the important things about how to take care of my mind and my body, that I could start looking forward to the aging process instead dreading it.

For me, this involved moving always from all animal products, detoxing my body with colon hydrotherapy, and lots of pure water.

FA: Now with the detox, that entailed you being a fruitarian correct?

LM: I was a fruitarian for the first ten months, becoming a vegan, primarily because I wanted to detoxify. My new health regime consisted of only fresh fruits and juices for the first nine months. I lost all my "baby fat," had tremendous energy, needed little sleep, and my depression and anxiety started to disappear. I felt like I could fly!

That was the beginning to my present healthy life and vitality. I'm now 57, and have been primarily living as a raw food vegan all these years. Cooked food, even if it's plant based, noticeably slows me down. Whenever I eat it, I have less energy and need more sleep.

I call my cooked food meals "healthy junk food." Whenever I feel a health problem start to surface, or notice weight gain, I move back to eating raw vegan food exclusively.

FA: So there's nothing animal-based in your diet, correct? Do you use any supplemental powders at all or is it all fresh grown sources?

Lillian Muller: Correct, as I said without being fanatical — which I think means a fear of food — I stick with a mostly raw and plant based diet.

And no, even though my trainer and partner, John, strongly suggests more protein and some supplements, I still don't currently use any. As of now, I feel I get everything I need from natural whole foods.

FA: Now I know diet alone didn't create a body like that; I know you have to train! When did you start working out?

Lillian Muller: I started exercising at 30. This was to keep what God has given me. Several years ago, while exercising on the stairs in Santa Monica, I met John Casler. We became fast friends, he became my trainer, and eventually got me into strength training.

We're now partners in Perfect Fit, and offer presentations and seminars on healthy and fit lifestyles and training programs.

Over the years, I've had to take breaks from training — like when I had my daughter at 39, and most recently when falling out of my favorite orange tree and breaking my ribs. Don't ask me what I was doing climbing a tree; that's a long story, but I couldn't even do a crunch for two months!

I'm back on the training track again and looking forward to doing my second calendar at 60!

FA: I'm so buying that! Talk about giving women a hope for the future in their training! Is that a special focus you and John have, working with "Masters"?

LM: John and I have been developing special training routines for those who "think" they're over the hill at 30. We show them how to stay healthy, strong and fit, at 50, 60, 70, and beyond.

FA: Is there anything that you noticed about training at an older age that could help those jumping in?

LM: I've always instructed my followers to start light and slowly. There's no rush to get in shape, and the body will condition at its own pace. That pace slows a bit as we get older.

If you haven't exercised in a while, remember that the most important thing is not just exercise, but also recovery. That takes a bit longer as we age, as well. While I might exercise everyday, I would not do the same exercises, specific bodypart, or routine any more than twice a week; I like to mix it up.

Another thing John and I teach, is to use more compound movements that involve multiple joints and lots of muscle groups. John calls them "Long Kinetic Chain Actions," and they help remind the body how it works in unison to do things everyday.

While it's okay to perform some isolation exercises on machines if you have a weakness, we focus on developing movement patterns that condition and prepare the body to function in day to day life.

FA: Excellent points on the recovery. What are some specific movements you like doing in the gym with John?

LM: Boy, there are so many! I really like the physicality of feeling my body exercising. It makes me feel alive.

I especially like barbell squats and stiff-leg deadlifts for my torso, thighs and butt. John has a special exercise we do, called the "Casler crunch," but its official name is the "Reverse Loaded Squat." It's basically a type of standing ab and torso exercise performed on the lat machine. I've never felt anything like it for my abs and whole body, ever.

He knows quite a few exercises that most people have never seen that he and I use. I think he will be writing a group of articles about them for T-Nation, called "The Best Exercises You Have Never Done."

I must also tell you that these aren't just some special fitness exercises; they're very serious strength training movements that John does with loads of weights, like a bodybuilder or powerlifter.

FA: It isn't natural at 20, let alone 50 to have an ass like that, so I'm just wondering if you do any specific training for that?

LM: Back when I was modeling for Playboy, I always had to stick my butt out to make it look bigger. I've been "blessed," in some people's opinion, with small hips and thighs. So I mainly focus on keeping tight and firm.

The "big butt" thing I leave to all the black and latina ladies, as they look great with a bit more. I'm quite happy with my Scandinavian slender look.

FA: Do you ever look at your own calendar and think, "Oh my god, I have to be the hottest women ever!"?

Lillian Muller: No, I learned from my fashion photographer boyfriend Maurice Rinaldi, who shot my calendar, that all pretty women can look like goddesses with the right lighting, camera angles, and makeup — and don't forget those cute outfits. I never let any of it go to my head!

FA: Such an awesome thing to say. Something else you said that I really liked was, and I am paraphrasing, "you can't stop getting older, but you can have a great personality and take care of your body."

You've obviously proven that on both accounts, with diet and training; but if there had to be a third, what would it be?

LM: I'd definitely say attitude and spirituality are even more important than diet and exercise when it comes to looking and feeling great. You have to train and develop all parts of you. I think joy and enthusiasm makes us beautiful from the inside out. They're the sparks that ignite our inner fire.

FA: What are your tips and tricks for staying strong and healthy at any age?

LM: In no particular order, they're as follows:

1. Clean, unprocessed, plant-based foods.

2. Regular exercise (use it or lose it).

3. Regular detox practices.

4. Adequate rest and recovery.

5. Spirituality and great mental attitude.

FA: Now, before we finish up: I know you and John are doing seminars around the country right now, so why don't you give me a little information on what they're about and what people can expect?

LM: Our seminars are all over the place. We teach, we motivate, and we set good examples of what to do for your health, beauty and longevity for all your years.

As I mentioned earlier, I was anxious and depressed at the prospect of turning 30. John turns 60 this month and I will be that age in a few years. We both look forward to the challenges of healthy and active aging, and have spent years seeking out the best methods to stay healthy, strong, and beautiful as the years go by.

Some of our attendees have never exercised before, yet they begin to utilize the program and attain the best shape they've ever been in. If you're already in good condition, these programs and systems can maintain or even improve that.

John and I present together, which is a scream since he is so scientific and hunky-nerdy and I'm so holistic and into natural raw foods, and we also present separately. Our combined thrust is health and longevity, but we branch out to subjects like strength training, lower back pain, holistic healing, and natural beauty from within.

In some cases, we've even given seminars on how to improve your love life as you age. Yeah, that's always a good one!

Nike has a slogan where they say, "Just Do It." We've taken that one step further to "And Keep on Doing It"!

FA: Last but not least, did you think Rod Stewart was sexy?

Lillian Muller: Absolutely! But I don't think I was his type — he never hit on me, and I did two projects with him!

FA: Thanks for the fun chat, Lillian!

For more information on seminars and dates, please visit Lillian's website or her forum (look for the Lillian Muller section) .

You can also contact Lillian via email at LillianMuller@AOL.com and John at BIOFORCE.Inc@gte.net.