Queen Latifah on her new TV season and shaping up for fall

Queen Latifah calls herself Big Sexy. “If you want a makeover, come to my house at Big Sexy headquarters,” she says with a laugh. “Someone is probably working on my hair.”

What about an attitude makeover? QL is so darn inspirational, you want to spend every day with her. It seems impossible to imagine her ever having a bad day … but she has them.

“Life is peaks and valleys – and it’s always gonna be that way,” says the actress, calling from the set of “The Queen Latifah Show.” “It’s all about how you come out of those valleys.”

Her key? “I don’t have a spirit of fear. My spirit is power and love. In other words, ‘Shake it off, girl. Decide that fear is just not you. Decide that you’re a fighter and you’re a champion. Know that you rock.’ ”

How does she bust down a bad day? “I yell and scream if I have to or I talk to my mom. She talks me off the ledge.”

With her talk show beginning a new season Monday (2 p.m., WBBM-Channel 2, and 7 p.m., WCIU-Channel 26), Latifah says that she doesn’t confuse a busy life with a troubled one. “When I’m feeling sorry for myself, I look at other people’s challenges. I know there are a lot of people out there who have it tougher than me. I’m also grateful for what has happened to me in life. I’m very blessed.”

Other life lessons from Latifah:

*IT TAKES A VILLAGE. “None of us got here alone. Do you appreciate your village?” she poses. “Even if you think you’ve done it alone, you probably didn’t, so get rid of the ego. I have about 200 people who help make my show happen.”

*BEAUTY COMES IN MANY PACKAGES. Ask the Cover Girl model about beauty and she says, “What makes me feel beautiful is when I’m in a mall or in the drugstore and someone comes up to me who says, ‘I’m wearing your shades of Cover Girl now.’ I know those shades didn’t exist when I was a child. Now, it’s on young and older women, and that’s amazing.”

*YES, YOU KEEP TRYING TO LOSE THE WEIGHT. “I’m working on that myself,” says Latifah. “Let’s all try to lose the weight together and keep lifting each other up in that struggle. Let’s be each other’s spark. Say to your friend, ‘It’s fall. Let’s go for a walk.’ Even if it’s just a walk around the block, it helps. I’m just like you in that I get lazy and I just want to veg out on that couch. When I feel that way, I start walking again.”

*SPECIAL TIP FOR THOSE WHO LIVE IN CHICAGO. “Today, I want you to vow to walk to a place where you could take a cab. You’ve just started your walking program,” she says. “The next day, get on your bike. There’s no excuse because the weather is cooler and that’s great.”

*CRAZY THING SHE DOES TO MOVE. “When it’s winter, I’ll go out there and make snow angels. Does that count as cardio?” she jokes. “Surrender to your weather and figure out a way to just move your body.”

*EMBRACE AGING. At age 44, she doesn’t have a problem with the numbers. “I’m getting more comfortable with just being me,” she says. “I’m adapting to the changes in my body because you have to realize that your body will change and you will move differently.” She is fine with all of it. “I know my knees aren’t as good as they were when I was 20 years old. Such is life. I try to keep the right attitude about it.”

*ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT. “I try to keep the right attitude about life. The key is you can’t live in the past or you’re just stuck. I don’t want to reminisce about the good old days. I want to make now the good days.”

*A NEW SEASON OF TALK. “During last season, I really figured out how to inject my point of view into the show. I don’t intentionally mean to offend anyone unless I mean to offend your ass.” She adds, “One of the biggest things about the show is to see how many places where we can come together and find common ground.”

*CHALLENGE YOURSELF. Queen Latifah will play song icon Bessie Smith in an upcoming HBO movie. She says, “It’s very challenging to take songs from 90 years ago and make them right for me. It’s a totally different style,” she says. “Bessie had one of the most powerful voices next to Janis Joplin. She could blow.” She says that her personal story “inspired me to be who I am. She had this bravado.”

ONE MORE WORD ABOUT BIG SEXY. “Wear who you are with pride,” says Latifah. “That’s why I like the term Big Sexy … big and sexy like me.”