'I FEEL SO GOOD NOW'

AFTER DECADES OF STRUGGLING WITH HER WEIGHT, THE SINGER HAS SWORN OFF SUGAR, LOST 45 LBS. AND IS LAUNCHING A COOKING SHOW: 'MY BODY'S THANKING ME' 

- DANA ROSE FALCONE

A few weeks ago Carnie Wilson baked an Insta-worthy Oreo cake, garnished with cookies and whipped cream and dripping with a chocolate glaze. After proudly posting a picture of the finished product, she declined to indulge in it. “I still love to make decadent things, but I’m not tempted anymore. Now I have control.”

For years sugar had the upper hand. “It was my kryptonite,” says Wilson, 55. “It took over me.”

Since stepping into the spotlight in the ’90s with the Grammy-nominated trio Wilson Phillips, Wilson has struggled publicly with weight, even after gastric bypass surgery in 1999 and lap band surgery more than a decade ago. But in September the “Hold On” singer gave up sugar and gluten, and since then she’s lost 45 lbs. and gained a healthier relationship with food, which she celebrates on her new cooking show Sounds Delicious, premiering April 16 on AXS TV. “I feel so much better,” she says. “I treat my body with respect now.”

As the daughter of Beach Boys cofounder Brian Wilson and singer Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford, “I didn’t grow up eating dinner around the table,” Wilson says. “That wasn’t my childhood.” Although she developed a love for cooking while making matzo ball soup and chocolate chip cookies with her grandma, food became a crutch and, she says, an addiction. “I have eaten to stuff down emotions. I eat when I’m happy, bored, anxious, annoyed, angry, frustrated, sad. I will find an excuse,” says Wilson, who has also faced alcohol and drug addiction in her past and still participates in a recovery program. “Food will always be emotional for me.”