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NEW YORK - Crazy diets, Jennifer Hudson doesn't do. Crazy workouts? Now, that's something she can get into.

"I have a ball. It's fun," the 28-year-old said in a recent interview. "I remember one time I had a weight loss, and that's all I did all day was work out. I'd do the workout tape, I'd run up the steps for about 20 or 30 minutes, go outside, jog around the block, go to the gym — all in one day."

Though Hudson has lost pounds recently — a drop she credits to Weight Watchers, for which she is a new spokeswoman — she hasn't had all day to exercise of late. Not only is she the mother of an almost 1-year-old son, she's working on the follow-up to her Grammy-winning debut CD, and she's also getting ready to start filming a biopic about South African activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela.

Hudson spoke about the her music, learning to balance career and family, and her nervousness about perfecting that South African accent.