How Does Jennifer Hudson Maintain Her Weight? 'I Throw the Pancakes Across the Room!'

10/06/2014 at 10:53 AM ET

Jennifer Hudson never ceases to impress, whether it’s with her powerful pipes or the fact that she’s maintained the 80-lb. weight loss she underwent as a Weight Watchers spokeswoman from 2010 to 2014. And she’s opening up to Yahoo Style about the surprising way she maintains her figure.

Courtesy Yahoo

“I throw the pancakes across the room! I don’t let the food intimidate me,” she says in the interview, which accompanies a glam editorial shoot. “If it’s too much, I just get rid of it, but I make sure to watch what I put in my body. And I make sure I know what it is. It’s all about portions for the most part. I just take care of myself in that way, being more conscious. I don’t work out a lot, but I do like to be active. Simple as that.”

So what tempts someone with enough willpower to toss her pancakes out of the line of vision? Chocolate. “I always have to have chocolate around — it’s my cigarette. I don’t smoke but it calms me so well. I don’t like too much junk in my dressing room because I have to watch what I eat, so I put everything else out of the room.”

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Courtesy Yahoo

Hudson also discusses her distinctive style (“lengthy, long things to feel sleek and elongated”) and her signature haircut, the pixie.

“I’m random so I just had a random thought. I say that because normally when a woman decides to cut her hair, it takes a long time to make that decision — you ponder on it, you ask people ‘What do you think, how do you feel, should I cut it?’ and you’re always a little wary. Not for me,” she said. “In that instant, in that thought, I was like ‘Okay. I want to cut my hair. Let’s do it.’ I was on a flight and then like the next day or so I was like, ‘Fly the hairdresser in. I want to chop it all off.'”

So does she have any regrets? “I wanted to go to the extreme. I actually, originally, wanted it much shorter,” she shares. “Then my hairdresser was like ‘That’s a bit drastic, Jennifer.’ I feel as though when you wear short hair it’s more about your presence.”

For more from the star, including her style icon and being friends with Beyoncé, check out Yahoo Style, and tell us: What do you think of her weight loss secrets? What’s your diet weakness?

–Alex Apatoff