Kelly Clarkson has been receiving almost as much press for her recent weight loss as for her new role as mentor on ABC's Duets, and now the OG American Idol winner is dishing on how she dropped the pounds.
"I do cardio. I run. I strength-train using my own body weight. I don't like free weights, because I build muscle easily," she admits to Redbook in the cover interview for their July issue. "Really, what I try to instill in my fans is to be healthy and happy. I have no desire to be super-skinny."
Video: Behind Kelly Clarkson's 'Dark Side'
Clarkson made headlines when she recently told Life & Style that she lost weight for her new boyfriend Brandon Blackstock [who also happens to be Reba McEntire's stepson], and the relationship is still clearly going well, as she candidly gushes that he makes her "happy."
"I know -- where's the kick in the ass? I told my assistant that today," Kelly says about her recent comeback. "I said, 'I'm just waiting for something to blow up.' She said, 'No, that's what happiness is.' I'm like, maybe I've never been happy! Because Brandon does, he makes me happy."
Related: Kelly Clarkson -- I Lost Weight For My Boyfriend
But one thing she clearly still can't let go of is her less than ideal experience on American Idol.
"I'm going to be completely honest -- I had no one looking out for me. They were looking out for the show, and it was horrible," she tells the magazine bluntly. "I was 19 years old. I was smart enough to know that it wasn't about me, but that didn't make it any easier. I'm all cried out about it, but my first four years, I hated my life; I almost quit a dozen times."
And thank God she didn't -- what would we do without all those killer break-up anthems?
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