By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
To people who are struggling with their New Year's resolution to lose weight, actress/singer Jennifer Hudson has these words of encouragement:
"Take your time. Pace yourself. Make up your mind to do what you want to do, and go for it. Don't pressure yourself, and don't go by other people's standards."
Hudson, 30, speaks from experience. At 5-foot-9, she has lost 80 pounds, slimming down from a size 16 to a size 6. Although she won't give her exact weight because "a lady never tells," she says 157 pounds "is close."
She offers a look at her years on the weight-loss roller coaster in her new book, I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down (Dutton, $25.95).
She started following Weight Watchers about two years ago and is the company's spokeswoman. The title of the book reflects the fact that she has figured out the key to losing weight and keeping it off. "I feel so empowered and in control."
In the book, Hudson writes about her early life on the South Side of Chicago, her experience as a contestant on American Idol and her Academy Award-winning role as Effie White in Dreamgirls.
She says she grew up in a family that ate hearty meals, fried food, fast food, homemade pound cake and peanut butter cookies. By the time she was in her teens, she was a plus-size girl, but she says she loved her body at every size.
"I had everyone on the planet tell me that I needed to look a certain way or be a specific size if I wanted to make it as a singer. I have been rejected from more jobs than the ones I've gotten simply because of my appearance. If I had listened to all of those people, maybe I would have become a broken-down, overweight, out-of-work, American Idol castoff has-been.
"But I didn't. I was never insecure. I am telling you the absolute truth when I say that I genuinely loved my body - fat, thin and everywhere in between."
Over the years, Hudson says, she was criticized for her appearance. One of the musical directors from American Idol told her that everything about her was too big. "She said my voice was too big, my size was too big, and my personality was too big." Hudson's response: "Isn't that what being a star is? Stars are larger than life!"
In Hollywood, it's all about image, she says, and she struggled with finding the right weight.
She gained 35 pounds during her pregnancy and weighed 237 pounds after the birth of her son, David Daniel Otunga Jr., in August 2009. His father is her fiancé, David Otunga, a Harvard-educated attorney turned reality show professional wrestler.
Hudson decided to lose weight and get in shape after his birth "to set an example" for her son and because she realized "this is my body. I have the power to do whatever I want with it."
She says her son, 2, whom she calls Munchkin, is learning good eating habits. He asks her for "a nana," his term for banana; he doesn't eat much sugar and loves to do pushups.
Hudson still follows the Weight Watchers' PointsPlus program, tracks her food intake on her iPhone and exercises daily, running either outside or on the treadmill for about 30 minutes a day while listening to music.
If she doesn't have time to run, she makes sure she moves as much as she can. "Anything helps. Anything is better than nothing."
