Watchers because it wasn’t about
Hollywood-style deprivation.
“You have what you’re craving,”
she says. “I have chocolate every
day.” Exercise, she says, is critical. She started with walking,
graduated to running. “Going jogging makes me feel powerful and
free—like Rocky! In winter I do
the treadmill, the Stairmaster. I
always say to myself: ‘Just give
me 10 minutes.’ If I do those 10
minutes—the next thing you
know, it’s 20 minutes—I trick
myself!”
Her biggest diet challenge is one
practically every mother is familiar with: Feeding her four-yearold son, David Daniel Otunga Jr.,
involves an inordinate amount of
self-control. “My son, he wants pizza, so okay, I make him a Margherita pizza, and then he doesn’t
eat it, so I have some, and then
that’s eight points … that gets
tricky.”
Spending time with her son allows
Hudson to take a break from all the
hair and make-up needed when she
is at work. "Being a celebrity, you
sort of have to look … decent when
you go out, but you don’t necessarily want to be always dressed up,
perfect. I have to be flexible, comfortable.” Comfort was her priority
for Jennifer Hudson Collection, her
new clothing line on QVC. “I still
can’t believe I have my own line,”
she says. “Us ladies, we don’t always get cute if we’re getting
Jennifer keeps in shape by lifting
weights, running on the treadmill,
and walking her dog.
comfort. You want both.” She
thinks for a minute. “I hate when
you see a guy and girl out together, and he’s walking along, feeling great, and she can’t walk in
her heels and she’s freezing in her
dress … ”
Each Jennifer Hudson Collection
piece has to work for all sizes. “It
has to look as good on a size 16
as it does as a size 6,” she says.
“Would my old self love this as
much as my new self? Could big
Jennifer wear this?” The difference between big Jennifer and
who Hudson’s become hasn’t fully sunk in, she says. “I still take a
picture of myself every day—just
so I can see myself how others
see me. It’s taken me a long time
to feel it, get used to it.
I’m still figuring it out with
my body—rediscovering myself, how I’m perceived.
What’s my style? Who am I?”
She admits that the transformation can be incredibly fun:
“With my new weight, it’s like
I have more room to play—it’s
like I’m my own doll, dressing
myself up. All of a sudden, a
shirt can be a dress, you
know?”
Of course, maintaining her figure may be part of her wedding plans; the 32-year old
singer is engaged to professional wrestler David Otunga
and is excitedly planning their
wedding, which will feature
their 4-year old son, David Jr.
While the couple hasn’t
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