You may recognize Arianne Zucker as resident bad girl Nicole Walker from NBC’s Days of Our Lives, but there is much more to Arianne than cat fights and evil schemes. In addition to being an Emmy nominated actress, Zucker is also a wife, mother and a philanthropist. Zucker carefully balances her personal life, professional life and humanitarian acts, but always manages to keep her family, primarily daughter Isabella, a top priority. “I feel my life is much fuller with Izzy in my life,” she says. “I have learned so much patience and I never knew I could love someone so much.” Even with patience and love, balancing family and career can take its toll without a good plan. Arianne credits prioritization, good scheduling and outside help during her work day for being able to keep it all together.

While keeping her life in check is important, let’s not forget that bringing forth her best body is also a key element to Arianne’s career, and regaining that amazing physique after Isabelle’s birth wasn’t an easy task. She underwent a C-section and was required to wait a minimum of 6 weeks before even attempting to exercise. However, once given the okay by her doctor, she hopped back on the road to svelte.

“Your body is never quite the same after baby, everything stretches and moves,” she says. “After (the c-section), I walked the baby a lot up and down hills and I also started P90X. I worked really hard to get my shape back.”

Now that Zucker is back in shape, she maintains by working out at the gym 1-2 days a week, taking nightly walks with the family and replacing her morning meal with a meal replacement shake.

While her family and career are two of Zucker’s true loves, perhaps her love for charity and her involvement in it is the most inspiring. Her current involvement in a project called LifeCHANGE which helps young adults find a true leader in themselves and then use those skills to help others, will allow her to work with two amazing organizations; The St. Bernard Project which assists families whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and Africa Rising, the Ndaba Mandela organization that is committed to instilling pride and purpose in young Africans. The LifeCHANGE organization will also be launching a new site in January 2012 to allow visitors to join the organization by setting up a personal profile page where they can support and give back to their own communities.

With all that Arianne Zucker has going on in her life both personally and professionally, she still believes in making time not only for yourself but also for your significant other. She stresses the importance of date nights to maintain intimacy and claims every mom should get a little down time, even if it’s just enough time for a bubble bath.

When asked what advice she had for moms struggling to raise a child while still holding onto a career Zucker stated, “Don’t feel guilty. I want my daughter to grow up and be whatever she wants to be in life. In order to do that, I have to lead by example.” Between her successful career, amazing family and dedication to helping others, I would say that’s one extraordinary example to follow!

For more information on Arianne Zucker visit: http://www.officialarizucker.com/

Arianne Zucker and Patrick Muldoon, who star as Nicole Walker and Austin Reed on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, are spending some time in Nashville this week to, as Muldoon says, “spread the love” to some of the soap’s biggest fans.

The pair will appear on WSMV-Channel 4′s More at Midday at 12:30 p.m. today.

The actors say Nashville is one of the soap’s biggest markets, and Zucker feels the show’s popularity is due to its “sense of family.”

“I think that’s important to the viewers,” she says. “They can still disappear into the issues and problems the characters have going on…It’s something that hits close to home.”

Muldoon has another plan up his sleeve: songwriting. The actor says music is his longtime passion and he hopes his trip to town will eventually lead to an album.

“I’ve never done the Nashville thing, which is supposedly like Disneyland if you’re a musician,” he says. “What I hope to get out of this trip is to just start writing down there.”

STUDIO spoke to Arianne to find out more about his amazing project, and what the future hold for LifeCHANGE.  Click the image below to read the full-sized article or visit STUDIO Magazine’s online edition HERE.

How often do you hear the words you must Respect your elders, your teachers, your brother, your sister, your parents? The list goes on. There are time in our life when that word means many things. Sometimes we take it for granted. Sometimes we don’t understand it. And sometimes we finally embrace it. With great Respect comes great responsibility. Ok, I may have manipulated that statement a little, but there is truth to that. The more people Respect you the more I believe you need to share with other and tho those who need guidance and help with discovering who they are and learning that you can be “great” just by having the Respect of others.

To get a better understanding of what respecting the smallest things in your life means, try going back in your mind and remembering when you lost something you loved or something of value to you was stolen. I have a small story. One day I was getting out of my car to do a quick errand and I was on the phone with my mom and I had two bags full of my personal items. One with a change of clothes and the other basically had my life in it. My jewelry, work information and most importantly my computer. It had so many pictures of my daughter from when she was born and our first Christmas with our immediate family. It was so heart breaking when I came back to my car and saw the window shattered and my things gone. I did not Respect my things enough to put them away or take them with me. That was my responsibility to take care of them. Yes, it is unfair that someone broke the window and took my things, however, I chose to leave them in my car that day.

Respect gives you confidence and confidence gives you Respect. If you Respect the things around you they will Respect you. I am not just talking about people. I am also talking about things. They can be books, clothes, animals, and yes, even money. I’m sure you are wondering where I am going with all of this or maybe how do I do it? I saw Respect is something that can be acquired quite simply. I would start with myself. If you take care of yourself, your heart, your body and mind it will emanate from you.

RESPECT comes in many forms, but it starts with you.

Tour the Set of Days of Our Lives & Enjoy Lunch with Arianne Zucker in LA

Description

Winner and a guest will receive a 30 minute set tour of the Days of Our Lives studio at NBC Studios in Burbank, CA. Also includes a lunch with Arianne Zucker (Nicole on Days of Our Lives), following the set tour, as well as an autographed 20″ x 30″ professional quality Days of Our Lives portrait and goody bag.

The proceeds for this item benefit LifeChange

Donated by: Arianne Zucker

T’Keyah Crystal Keymah, known for her roles on “In Living Color,” “Cosby” and “That’s So Raven” was this year’s event chair. The event drew women stars from film and television and from the soap operas The Bold & the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives and The Young & the Restless. The keynote speaker on Saturday was Colonel Lisa Costanza, a US Army brigade commander who recently returned from Iraq spoke about women in leadership in our armed forces.

Habitat for Humanity San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys CEO Donna Deutchman said, “We wanted to do more than just have a day where women build. We wanted to engage outstanding role models to empower the young women who live in affordable housing to be active agents of change and make a better community for themselves and their neighbors.”

The San Fernando Habitat for Humanity affiliate has a goal to not only empower the families who live in its housing but also to educate the community on the importance of affordable housing in providing safe and stable neighborhoods. This weekend over 700 women, including nurses, attorneys and actors, showed by their work that they can build better tomorrows today.