Literally beaming like the Light of the Sun, Jill Scott walked her newly slim silhouette into Atlanta’s Do At the View restaurant Monday night (June 20) to preview her forthcoming album for thirsty V103 radio listeners. As fans sipped on wine and appetizers, Jill dished on her fifth project, along with the curvy bod that her sheer cardigan couldn’t contain. “No!” she quickly responded to the idea that she felt societal pressure to lose weight. “I don’t feel pressure to gain it, either,” she matter-of-factly continued. “I am where I am. I had a child and carrying him up the steps was a chore. There are 19 steps in my house in L.A.. I said, ‘Let me get active.’”

Scott’s exercise regimen doesn’t mirror that of the droves of starlets with scary drill sergeant trainers. If you command her to run, she’ll probably do the opposite. “I don’t like to be told what to do,” she remarked of demanding trainers. “I just don’t. Either it’s a collaboration or nothing at all.” She and her trainer, Scott Parker, have devised a program that encompasses one key element—it’s on Jill’s terms. “We have fun. We ride bikes, we throw a football, we swim, we do kickboxing and we just have fun. That’s made all the difference. I don’t like chores like that. It seems to be working. I feel better.”

Lyrically, we’ve always known the sensual side of Scott, but, aesthetically, it seems like we’re just meeting her for the first time. Light of the Sun’s sexy cover shot, along with myriad other promo pics, paints a real life picture of the gorgeous brown sugar goddess we’ve come to love. After 11 years in the game, Scott finally found a set of photographers that embraced her obvious sex appeal. “We had fun doing those shots. They were done by Steven Gomillion and Dennis Leupold. It was the first time I worked with a photographer that could see me the way I see myself. A lot of photographers are stuck on super slim beauty. And I was like, ‘Can you get an eye for medium thick beauty?’”

We can! Light of the Sun is in stores now, and be sure to catch Jill Scott at the 2011 BET Awards this Sunday, June 26!

(Photo: Rob Kim/Getty Images)