Listen Live
PraiseIndy Featured Video
CLOSE

Appearing on “TODAY” to discuss her new memoir, “I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down,” Hudson revealed that she underwent a bit of a shock when she started gaining noteriety for her singing talent as well as her weight. Read: Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” Becomes “Super Grace” Speaking of her red carpet appearances during “American Idol” early in her career, the Grammy and Oscar winner said,

I didn’t define myself that way so it was, like, it was a shocking moment for me. Actually when I started on the red carpet doing ‘Idol,’ I had already lost 60 pounds then. By then, I was, like, a size 12. This is every woman’s size. The average size. I was, like, what are you talking about? Here it is again: image, image, image, image. To me, it’s talent, talent, talent, talent. At least where I come from. Definitely it’s my faith in God and growing up — my mother, even though she’s not here now, she trained us well. I always dreamed but never this big, and look what God can do. That’s something my grandmother used to always say. She would always shout… how great thou art! And I never understood … until I’ve been able to travel the world and see God’s marvelous works around the world and I would find myself saying, oh, my God, how great Thou art,”

I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down, available for purchase Jan. 10, 2012, chronicles Hudson’s beginnings as a choir singer in a church on the Southside of Chicago, as well as her “meteoric rise from ‘American Idol’ to ‘Dreamgirls’ to her amazing weight loss on the megablockbuster Weight Watchers diet plan.”