For my workout, I'm up at 4am. I say my prayers, count my blessings, and I work out right away. I just get it done. One day I'll tone - chest, back and shoulders - and the next day it's biceps and triceps. I also do 45 minutes of cardio every day. I do that before I even leave the house.

I've never swayed from who I am. People have seen me on television, and they know what I'm like and they know what I do and they respect me for what I do. They know that I'm huggy and kissy.

I am kinder to my body. I don't try to prove anything to myself or others. I keep thinking about the need to go slower, gentler and maintain a sense of humor about it all.

But if you pick up every other magazine, it is the peanut butter diet, or the cabbage soup diet, and then you go to the radio and you hear that you can drink some solution and you will lose weight overnight. It just does not work that way!

You shouldn't make fun of people who have issues.

Stop trying to find something in food that will make you feel better. I used to have eating disorders; I'd binge and purge all the time: fried oysters, po' boys, muffulettas, beignets, coffee and doughnuts. I tried to medicate myself with food when people made fun of me or hit me with a bat in school. I'd always turn to food. Knowing what I now know, I'd turn to me.

I don't talk about my personal life, and I don't talk about death.