If you think muscles are just for meatheads or gym rats think again! Did you know that just 30 minutes of exercise a day can make you a genius? Ok, you still might not become Einstein but you can get pretty close. Check out the 6 ways that working out can make you smarter.

1. Increases Energy

The more you move, the more energized you will feel. Regular physical activity improves your muscle strength and boosts your endurance, giving you the energy you need to think clearer and come up with new ideas. A good 15 minutes of moving around, even just around your living room, makes your body produce more energy on a cellular level.

2. Sharpens Focus

Dr. John Ratey, author of “Spark – The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” says that exercise improves your brain in the short term by raising your focus for two to three hours afterwards.  If you have a presentation or speaking engagement try to work out beforehand; you’ll be at your peak when you have to perform. In the long term, it can even help starve off brain aging and Alzheimer’s. This works on the cellular level through neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to improve itself with blood flow and levels of brain-derived protein. He calls it “miracle-gro” for the brain, and it all comes from regular exercise!

Read more ways exercise makes you smarter at Forbes.com.

There’s no question that charismatic people are some of the most successful individuals out there. Professor Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK estimates charisma is 50% innate and 50% trained. They key ingredients of charisma are simple actions that, with practice, become a part of your personality and improve your interactions with everyone around you, increasing your overall satisfaction with life. Here are 7 qualities of charismatic people that you can incorporate into your life.

1. Listen Actively

When you listen, give them your undivided attention and ask questions. Do NOT check your phone more than once in a conversation – better yet, don’t check it at all!  A study by the University of Colorado found that active listening helps avoid misunderstandings and opens people up to get them to say more. Actively listening will improve communication with those around you, whether you’re working with them or living with them. People tend to remember good listeners as positive people.

Read about more traits of charismatic people in my article on Forbes.com.

When you’re working long hours on the computer, running from one business lunch to the next and traveling nonstop, your diet and fitness goals sometimes get derailed in ways you don’t even think about. By running from one event to another and having days packed with meetings you may be unintentionally harming your health and keeping on extra weight. Here are 9 ways you may be sabotaging yourself without even realizing it.

Bad Habit #1: Eating Low Fat Foods

Foods that are labeled low-fat or fat free can save you a few calories, but they do this by replacing fat with sugar and other chemicals which are WORSE than fat. They digest more quickly, leave you with a sugar crash and leave you feeling hungry faster. The best approach is to eat with nutrition in mind. Remember: A low-fat donut is still a donut!

Bad Habit #2: Skipping Meals

Say it with me: SKIPPING MEALS MAKES YOU FAT and is one of the worst things you can do for your body and mind. Your metabolism slows down, and you’re much more likely to overeat later in the day. The American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who cut out breakfast were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. Rev up your metabolism by eating small portions of nutritious foods throughout the day – for breakfast, 1 cup of greek yogurt & berries are a fast, nutritious option. If you’re on the go, snack on a handful of pistachios or edamame. These will keep you full and satiated for about 200 calories.

For more, read the full article on Forbes.com.

In my weekly Forbes column, I write about health and productivity. As CEO of my own brand, I need the best help I can get, and my recent switch to iPhone completely disappointed me! Hate is a very strong word, but my iPhone has lost emails, twisted my words around with Autocorrect and turns off halfway through the day. If my iPhone was an assistant, I’d fire him!

I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon a month ago today when I turned my old RIM Blackberry in. I bought into the upgrade hype of how Blackberry is a dinosaur, and I’m missing out on the best thing since sliced bread. I caved to peer pressure. I heard “Give it a few weeks and you’ll LOVE it!” from 10 different people. Then, slowly, I’d get the confessions: “I know it’s not that great but the camera is amazing” or “I can’t live without the apps!”

Then I got to thinking – is my business built on Instagram and Angry Birds?

I wrote a column a ways back on “8 Tips To Increase Your Productivity.” Well, the iPhone was the single best way to decrease my productivity. With all those appointment at the Genius Bar, all that money spent on accessories to make it work as well as my Blackberry, my iPhone hasn’t saved me any time! Here are some solutions I’ve found to help save some minutes for every other iEntrepreneur.

1. Emails: Harder Than Ever

I now spend more time rewriting emails than writing them. I have to re-read the entire email to make sure Autocorrect didn’t pull a fast one on me – like when it turned “just one sec” into “give one sex.” This is one of the tamer Autocorrect moments. With the wrong client this would be quite embarrassing! Also, selecting a section of text feels like finger painting – give me back my roller ball!

Quick Fix:My amazing assistant found me an iPhone case with a slide-out keyboard that works via Bluetooth. Keyboards may not look as sleek as a touchscreen, but they’re a must for Blackberry converts!

Read the rest of my quick fixes at Forbes.com.

After reading the article below, you’ll be headed to Home Goods for a new dining set, candles and light bulbs. You may be holding your nose as you take the dog for a walk. Why?? Because these random actions can help you kill cravings and drop pounds.

1. Pinch your nose or earlobes for 10 seconds. This is an ancient acupressure secret – acupuncturists believe that these pressure points restore balance in your energy, as imbalances and blockage of energy cause cravings. Weight loss patients who used acupressure techniques were able to maintain their weight loss better than those who didn’t use it, a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine showed.

2. Lighten up and use brighter bulbs in your dining room. Dim lights lower your inhibitions, and let you feel better about eating more. 100 watt bulbs work well; just make sure your fixtures can handle them.

Read the rest of my tips for killing cravings at Forbes.com.

Warning: the column you’re about to read may completely kill your appetite. It’s recently been reported that the food coloring in Starbucks‘ Strawberry Frappuccinos is made from cochineal beetles. Do you REALLY know what you eat?

The FDA has guidelines for the amount of “filth” your food is allowed to contain, including insects, hair and parasites! Some of this is unavoidable – nature just isn’t sterile. But after reading this list, who would have thought Hot Dogs sound clean? Maybe next time you’ll think twice about grabbing a handful of jelly beans when walking through the office. Read my full article on Forbes.com.

One of the most common questions I get is how to lose belly fat. Belly fat is actually the most dangerous type of fat – besides aesthetics, large waist lines are indicators of –disease-disease-disease.

It takes more than just crunches! We start to gain weight in our midsection when our cortisol levels spike. Stress is one of the primary culprits for high levels of cortisol secretion. When this happens cortisol breaks downs lean muscle (the type of tissue that burns calories most efficiently) and also holds on to fat storage in the abdominal region. That stress can even get WORSE with bad dieting; studies show that the stress caused by dieting can increase cortisol levels, making no change in belly fat even with calorie restriction. So how do you shape up? Incorporate these 6 things below and you will be on your way to a flatter belly in no time flat!

1. Sleep

If you want to work late at night, think again. When your biorhythms are off, you end up eating more. When you’re tired you produce more ghrelin, which triggers cravings for sugar and other fat-building foods. Losing sleep can also alter your hormone production, affecting your cortisol levels that cause insulin sensitivity, prime reasons for belly fat! Getting about 7 hours of sleep a night is one of the best things you can do for your body shaping goals.

2. Short bursts of exercises

1000 crunches a night may get you strong abdominal muscles, but with a full layer of fat on top, you will not get the results you really want. Instead of all those crunches, do exercises that engage multiple muscle groups and work your cardiovascular system. Try planking, where you hold yourself in a push-up position, resting your forearms on the ground. Try 3 or 4 sets of holding for 30 seconds each. Getting up and moving throughout the day by going for walks will also help.

3. Sugar is your Enemy

Fighting belly fat is 80% healthy diet. Reduce calories by filling yourself up with protein, vegetables, whole grains, and replacing bad habit snacks with good ones. For example, if you have a sugar craving, replace your calorie laden latte with a Muscle Milk lite, one of my favorites, because it has zero sugar and a ton of protein that will satiate while also torching my sugar craving! Another great trick is a sprinkle of cinnamon in your morning coffee or oatmeal- the spice has been shown to help stabilize blood sugar. It also slows the rate at which food exits the stomach, which helps you feel fuller longer.

Read the rest of my plan at Forbes.com.

Successful, active people all have one thing in common: discipline. They have figured out how to harness their energy in the most productive way possible.

After years of packing in appointments with clients, running my NGR fit brand and taking care of my own fitness needs, I can tell you the secret to maximizing your productivity and working at your peak is organization. Here are 8 things you can start doing today that will make you more focused, active, and productive.

1. Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day

Sticking to a sleep schedule, even on your days off, creates structure that your body will thank you for. On highly productive days, waking up earlier keeps you on schedule and forces you to start your to-do list earlier. Tomorrow, wake up 45 minutes to an hour earlier than your normally wake up.

2. Visualize Your Day

What do you want to happen today? What would put you in a good mood at the end of the day? Plan out your perfect day from morning, through lunch to the evening. You’ll be amazed how much more you fit in to your day when you decide what you want to fit in to your day.

For the rest, read my article on Forbes.com.

Are you losing focus during the day? Having trouble concentrating? Before you start looking for the quick fix, it’s time you realize the problem. Would you believe that the primary catalyst for losing focus during a long work day is the food you put in your body? It’s a competitive world and to achieve real success, you have to be optimized and excel in little things that go beyond your daily tasks at work.

Here are 6 foods that will not only boost your productivity throughout the day, but are proven to help sharpen your focus. They are easy to add to your diet and the benefits will last a lifetime. Read them all on my column on Forbes.com.

Since my whole philosophy is that you don’t need a gym to stay fit, people often ask me what equipment I like to use at home. I like devices that keep you motivated, and that’s why I really like the Motoactv by Motorola. It’s a lightweight music player and GPS fitness performance tracker in one device, and it records your progress while you jam out.

My model holds up to 8 gigs of music (there’s also a 16gb model available) and it was really easy to add songs from my computer. I synced the Motoractv with my PC, loaded it up with my favorite Gaga remixes and headed out for a test drive – I mean, test run!  Motoactv has a touch screen and physical buttons that can start your workout and start the music. I really like this, because you can skip or repeat songs without stopping your run to look at the screen. Motoactv even tracks what songs you perform best to – how cool is that! I’ve always said music is a great motivator, now I have hard data to prove it.

Motoactv with Arm Band

Another great thing about the Motoactv is that it’s sweat-resistant and water-resistant. So, a big advantage the Motoactv has over the iPod or a smart phone is that you can take the Motoactv for a run in light rain, or work up a sweat, and still not worry about water damage.

The Motoactv also has a built-in GPS to track of where you’ve been, and what trails work you the hardest. You can also sync it to the cloud on Motoactv.com and get detailed info on your workouts.

You can also set goals, and compete with your friends on the Motoactv portal on motoactv.com. I always recommend journaling and teaming up with friends to reach your fitness goals, and the Motoactv makes this a little bit easier. It’s a great tool to keep track of your fitness performance and keep you motivated with all your favorite music. The Motoactv is definitely one of the fitness gadgets I’ll be using is 2012.