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Get Fit with SmartyGirlLeadership (SGL): Summer Fitness Giveaway

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BBC Brainsmart on YouTube features irresistible tutorials with animated stickdrawings how to stay smart. The Scottish accented narration is a bonus!

Why are the SmartyGirlLeadership (SGL) editors mentioning this? Because we agree with Brainsmart that taking care of the body benefits the mind.

Photo Credit: Mud Run Team Tribe Sports via Pinterest

As a result, we want to reward SmartyGirlLeaders and SmartyFellas, who accept our Summer Fitness Challenge.

Health & Fitness sponsors have provided us with swag so we are having a giveaway. Contact us with your fitness promotion proposal and give us a report of your results. Our purpose is to empower leaders so this is a game:  a stretch of your abilities to inspire, recruit, and celebrate. For book recommendations on leadership, you can visit this past blog post.

Self-improvement is good. Improvement with friends by your side? Even better.

Here’s a thought-starter to show you what we mean:

Step 1: Identify a cause and a fitness event. Do you care about a particular health cause? Maybe there is a 5K race in your area in July where the race fee goes towards that cause. What is one example of a cause?

Perhaps you know a local family friend with a bacterial infection, Lyme disease, caused by a tick. Under Your Skin is a documentary that shows how it can make athletes bedridden.

Photo Caption: Under Our Skin Lyme Disease Film Facebook Page

Decide to galvanize a group to run the 5K to raise funds for the patient to help pay for medical treatments. The disease attacks tissues of the muscles, joints and brain. Consider making it super-easy for others to donate by using a Paypal service like the Dafforn family’s Lyme Disease Fundraiser.

Photo Credit: Paypal Ashley Dafforn’s Lyme Disease Fundraiser
Photo Credit: SGL Associate Editor Erica and Marathoner Built Homes in Nicaragua for Habitat for Humanity

In the photo above, SGL Associate Editor Erica joined the Habitat for Humanity effort in Nicaragua to build homes to improve the health of others. Our neighbors in Nicaragua did not have ventilation in their make-shift shelter and the soot from the kitchen smoke was damaging to their family. That’s Erica: using her physical fitness to improve the health of a neighborhood!

Step 2: Ask people to join your team. Are you new at 5K runs, walks or obstacle courses? Are you unable to round up a team of 6 in time for the online registration to register as captain? No problem. Bring 5 medium-sized solid color shirts, facepaint or sweatbands (i.e. neon green). At the event, find other first-timer 5K individuals and ban together as an Insta-Team. Major points for leadership-on-the-spot!

Photo Credit: BlogHer 2011 Amazeballs Banjees via Pinterest

Step 3: Tell us about the results what you learned as a leader in this fitness event, how you measured success and how you celebrated with your team. It’s simple. We even provide 2 ways for you to send us the same information. Take your pick. You can choose to answer by Google Form. Your answers can be short phrases. Complete sentences not required.

Photo Credit: Copy Captain Andrea and The 4 Lizards. It’s ok with us! 

Or you can tell us via SurveyMonkey. Click on the green and white image below for sample answers for the first 5 questions.

Still not sure, how to qualify as a Fitness Captain? Here’s another thought-starter:

Photo Credit: SGL Associate Editor Erica and Editor-in-Chief Renee

Step 1: Identify 3 people you exercise with regularly. Do you play badminton with your son? Is your littlest girl just old enough to sit and roll a ball? Do you and your partner take walks after lunch on Saturdays? Family are people too! So if you are a parent or caregiver, think of how to co-opt your Sig O or caregiver and the kids to create a fitness routine. In other words, family members count as your 3 followers. Adapt it to what makes sense. Toddler marathoner not required 🙂

Waive the $15 per person entry fee for captains if you register between 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 8th! *You don’t need to be female or a mom, just willing to be a captain to lead 3 followers! Meet our Street Team in person at Sports Authority. See our invite video:

Step 2: Set the fitness goal. Again, customize the challenge to your team. Is it adding 15 minutes of active play per day to your existing routine? Is it playing a soccer pick-up game without being winded before half-time? Trust yourself. You decide.

Photo Credit: Soccer Memes via Pinterest

Step 3: You’re in control. You decide the concluding fitness event. Captains measure progress week per week but you decide if it is for 3 weeks or 6 weeks. You are in charge of the duration. What will be the final test (you create)? Most importantly, how will you celebrate with your team? Is it with a trip to a shop for sorbet sandwiches? You choose. Send photos or videos via Google Drive to our staff so we can cheer for you too.

Will you combine two of your hobbies (i.e. Stand Up Comedy writing and fitness) and be Captain Mike of Team Laughing Fit? Can’t wait to hear about the other combinations.

Will you find a way to multiply this effect and host a fitness challenge of your own in fall? We hope so. We will notify you, using the contact information, you provide if you win.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com 22 & Single by Katie Kiesler
Photo Credit: Denet Lewis Bodybuilding Competition

In addition to our Summer Fitness Challenge Giveaway, SmartyGirlLeadership and SmartyFella Readers can stay motivated by reading our upcoming exclusive interviews with two Kickstarter-funded novelists: Jack Cheng of These Days and Katie Kiesler of 22 & Single. Stay tuned for exclusive Q&A with High Five Fitness TV Founder Denet Lewis and others who are smart about fitness.

Photo Credit: Katie Kiesler

Who are some of our sponsors of the Giveaway?

Luna Bar is the official energy bar sponsor of the Summer Fitness Challenge. Yours Truly loves the Lemon Zest flavor Luna Bar. It’s true that my second favorite is Chocolate Peppermint Stick. Do you like the new Carrot Cake Luna Bar? Visit us on Twitter, Facebook and this blog to find out when our street teams will be in your neighborhood to reward participants in our Summer Fitness Challenge.

Photo Credit: Luna Bar SmartyGirlLeadership Summer Fitness Challenge energy bar sponsor
Photo Credit: Honey Badger Drink Fearless SmartyGirlLeadership Summer Fitness Challenge drink sponsor

Photo Credit: Sports Authority SGL partner for live on-site Summer Fitness Challenge in-store registration

Cal and Stanford have a friendly blood donation competition they call “Rivalry for Life”. Guess which school heard about our fitness challenge and donated swag keychains? You guessed it.

Photo Credit: SmartyGirl Stanford Blood Center Rivalry for Life Keychain

Other awesome rivalries are welcome. Other thought-starters: why not challenge your rival school’s sorority or fraternity to fitness for a cause? We can’t wait to hear about it. Photos encouraged!

Photo Credit: Yours Truly Editor-in-Chief SmartyGirl Renee

Here’s my own Fitness Challenge:


SmartyFella Humor: 3 Tips to Reduce Housemate Conflicts During a 90-day Stay at Mom and Dad’s

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Mom and Dad’s: a place to overindulge in food, booze and music. Strike-that. That’s New Orleans. Instead, mom and dad’s place might be a setting to regroup for a few months.

Photo Credit: Pinterest Living with Parents via Darcy Burnett

Susan Adams’s “Best Cities for New College Grads”, is an idea, if you can afford it as an alternative to living with mom and dad.


1. Clarify expectations before you move in. Ask for a sit-down with your parents to ask them about expectations. Remember they can take a boarder and charge rent so see how this can be a win-win for you both if they decide to forego earning market rate from a part-time commuter through Craigslist room shares.



First, here’s a negative example. Let’s say the young adult taught himself/herself how to cook vegan, low potassium, diabetic-friendly dinners for 3 for the express purpose of using this as the primary way to “pay” for the 90 day home-stay. He/she knows that mom and dad have radically changed their eating habits under doctors orders. 

The family had a scare when granddad seems to show warning signs of bowel cancer. Cancer turned out to be a false alert but the whole family has made lifestyle changes. Dad prefers mom’s comfort food cooking and mom is afraid dad won’t eat enough with the new diet. 

That’s where the law school graduate young adult wants to be useful: to cook so mom has a break from kitchen-work three times a week, dad can eat well and according to doctor’s orders and while job hunting can spend some time with granddad after a health scare. Is any of this discussed? No.


However, the mother and father expected two very different things: first, an agreement for their adult son/daughter to go on twice-weekly arranged dates with someone of their choosing and a ride to the colonic irrigation medical office for grandad every other Saturday afternoon. 

Photo Credit: I Can Has Cheezburger via Pinterest Colonic Irrigation



Let’s take the illustration farther. Imagine that the young adult is spending $115 for groceries every week and he/she still reads dissatisfaction on the faces of her host parents so he/she takes it up a notch by spending an additional $75 per week for ingredients and sets back the savings plan for move out. 

Meanwhile, still no conversation has been broached about expectations: the parents are worried why their adult child completed law school but seems obsessed with culinary pursuits.


Also how can they give another excuse to Phyllis and Tom why you haven’t agreed to visit their single son/daughter’s Live Action Role Playing (LARP) Meetup with romantic intentions. 

Photo Credit: LARP Cosplay via Pinterest



Everyone’s disappointed. Imagine a blow-up on Thursday night. The young adult comes home after two exhausting job interviews, changes out of a suit and makes early-bird dinner for the folks. The three sit in resentful silence. Then ol’ dad scrapes his fork against the ceramic plate of roasted eggplant in a way that shows that he’s going to burst into a fit. He says, “How can you take advantage of us like this?”

Photo Credit: Roasted Eggplant Recipe via Pinterest


The ol’ mom dabs her eyes melodramatically with a paper napkin. The young adult launches back, “Did you know you are so hard to please and you are making it more expensive to live here each week? Take advantage? Are you kidding? You’re the one who’s pushing for me to start some sort of catering business for your friend’s weirdo LARP events.”


See the problem? Huge misunderstanding.



2. Weigh the pros and cons of receiving public assistance. Should the young adult be spending nearly $200 per week on groceries for a specialist diet for seniors? Is he/she foregoing General Assistance CalFresh Food Stamps because of the assumption that in 90 days he/she will land a job that offers health insurance, gym membership, and hot coworkers with dating potential? The bad news? Unemployment may drag out to underemployment and even college grads are applying for CalFresh monthly food assistance with EBT cards. Being disciplined like this, accepting the food help might help you save up and move to a room share away from relatives. This might help you transition back to workplace culture with more confidence knowing that if you make new friends at work, they will meet your graphic designer roomie rather than mom and dad who call you “Pumpkin”.


3. Re-evaluate what is tolerable. Are you able to politely but firmly decline arranged dates by your parents if they become more aggressive about it? It may be an expectation of you as you are under their roof.

Photo Credit: Blind Date Humor via Pinterest


It is possible, they have a goal of finding you a relationship in 90-days so you can move in with a girlfriend/boyfriend and move out. If you want professional landlords who don’t press you about your love life, then you might have to forfeit a homestay with mom and dad.


Compare this to a room share arrangement on Craigslist where a single parent and his kid stay in the 1 bedroom while you rent out the living room couch for a month-to-month. You may be hanging your navy interview socks in someone’s suburban backyard to dry because the coin laundry is too creepy after 10 P.M. However, you might feel better with this couch-rental than if your mom brought you fresh-folded laundry before your mandatory date with son/daughter of so-and-so in her social circle.

Photo Credit: Laundry Humor via Pinterest


Next, here are 2 positive examples.


A) Mom and dad approach their adult son/daughter whose lease with current housemates will end in 17 days. Mom and dad pitch living with them in their home for 90-days and participating in their own version of speed dating. The objective? To match-make a new love for you to move-in with at the end of 90-days. They see it as meeting 3 of their goals: 1) getting more face-time with you, 2) one step closer to grandkids for them in 5-years and 3) an admission that they are competing with their friends to pair off their single eligible son/daughter


Why is this a positive example? Because this expectation is out in the open and the young adult can accept, decline or negotiate the conditions. 

Keep your sense of humor and jot notes for comedy material while seeing your current challenges through the lens of The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny even if You’re Not by John Vorhaus. Maria Bamford’s comedy set about “joy whack-a-mole” will also help you laugh when conversations with family are difficult.



B) Young adult pitches to mom and dad. In 90-days, he/she will be a boarder in their home in exchange for twice a week rides for health appointments (i.e. drop dad off at the gym and mom to her diabetic nutritionist). In addition, he/she will do own laundry, walk the family dogs, and pay the gardener. This means the savings per week for the gardener and dog-walker, the parents can save for a weekend retreat. The young adult, as a driver to health appointments, will stop the tug of war between spouses for the one car for 3 months. In addition, the couple will not nag each other about going to the gym or nutritionist. The Young adult will keep a curfew of quiet hours between 1am to 9am. No overnight guests. Will supply own soap, shampoo, laundry detergent. Will not be doing cooking chores as condition of stay because reserves the right go on dates, stay over at a friend’s house, and network as needed to land that job offer in 90-days. Will not tell on dad when he drinks Dr. Pepper in the secrecy of the garage.


Why is this a good start? Because mom and dad can accept the terms, say no or suggest a counter-offer. 

Impossible to Please: How to Deal with Perfectionist Coworkers, Controlling Spouses, and Other Incredibly Critical People by Dr. Lavender and Cavaiola might be a good communication guide for all parties involved.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com Impossible to Please by Lavender and Cavaiola


Tell SmartyFellaEntertainment about your success stories after a 90-day home stay with the folks in your comments below.


3 Steps How to Fast-track as a Student of Stand Up Comedy

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This season I’m studying The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus. Why? Because, like you, I want to break out of being type-casted. For instance, you might be a software engineer but that’s not all you are. Right? Why do your coworkers give you an incredulous look if you also dj? Being funky and logical aren’t mutually exclusive adjectives for a person. You follow?

Photo Credit: Amazon.com The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus


So how does a SmartyGirl or SmartyFella fast-track comedic studies? Just meet Ryan Stout, Jackie Monahan and Andrew Norelli in person. It’s easier than you think. Just be damn lucky, like me.

Photo Credit: SheWired Jackie Monahan


Step 1. Be seated in comic’s row at Rooster T. Feathers. This is the one seat, in the shadows, by the walkway where stand up comics take that one last deep breath before they proceed to the stage.


Step 2. Look like a dork. Go alone. Don’t bring a date. Be mistaken for a reviewer or just a single just on the knife’s edge of suicide.

Photo Credit: Rooster T. Feathers Jackie Monahan and Renee Marchol


Step 3. Be unprepared. Respond to the guy or gal just striking up a conversation and not realize that he/she has been on Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel live. Do this for 8 minutes for maximum doofiness. Be too obtuse to be star-struck.


To avoid spoilers I kept the formula but changed the details of the sets observed


What are 5 Comic Principles I Observed?


The callback


Example: If you begin your set with how you are like a hyena in the bedroom, then give the audience a sense of closure (without being too neat and tidy) by referencing your laughing in the boudoir ways before heading off the stage.


The fish-out-of-water


Example: Pick something that is binary: 0 or 1. Describe how as a 0, you did something that made others mistake you for 1. You can swap this out for most anything that you consider an opposite. Did you unknowingly use a code, symbol or gesture associated with the opposite group (whatever that may be)? Ryan Stout’s set includes something that he claims he does on an airplane. I won’t tell. Andrew Norelli gives a one-of-a-kind formula. You can’t make me tell either. I’m sworn to secrecy as a good audience member like I swore to take my 4th-grade magic lesson to my Girl Scout ugly brown-knee sock ever-lovin’ grave.

Photo Credit: Rooster T. Feathers Andrew Norelli

Photo Credit: Facebook Fan Page Incredibly Handsome Comedians Comedy Tour with Andrew Norelli 


The comic premise


Example: You might pretend to object to the medical term, penis, but use a substitute word that is far more embarassing in public such as flippity-floppity-boing.


The buildup


Example: Take it farther. It can be most any ridiculous assumption. Offer the audience a what if scenario and take it beyond the bounds of acceptable. For instance, what dating social guffaw could be made that more humilating? Did your faux bad date experience include your blind date dropping a used tampon out from under a skirt? Keep the audience going. Reveal the twist after 15 more seconds of keeping the audience in the dark. Wait for it: drop the bomb for maximum effect that your date was a man!

Photo Credit: Ryan Stout.com 


Tension is what makes the payoff that more gratifying.


The slapstick


Example: A nonverbal imitation of a serial killer if he somehow were cherubic-looking


SmartyFellas and SmartyGirl readers, read this tutorial with a crystal of pink Himalayan volcanic salt. 

Disclaimer: I’m just a newb so I might be using the comic glossary terms incorrectly. 


Why share at all if I am not a comic demi-god yet? So it can be a thought-starter for you all. I can’t wait to get your autograph when you dare the Open Mike, brave the stage with the Will to Risk, and dust yourself off if the first 15 jokes get a lukewarm reception.


Know I’ll be cheering for you!


As Jackie Monahan signed my autograph book, “Be bold! The world is yours! You are amazing!”

Best regards,

Editor-in-Chief, Renee Marchol

9 Comedians, 8 Poets and a vacation from high-brow for National Poetry Month

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Sometimes the general public assumes that creativity comes from an external mind-altering substance. Yes, it’s true that Byron, Coleridge, and Poe might have used opium recreationally. It seems appropriate to acknowledge this on 4/20.

Photo Credit: Flicker.com djwudi National Poetry Month Magnets

However, I would argue the greatest powder keg of feel-good chemicals come from drug-free laughter. What makes hot SmartyFellas laugh? See below.

Who says that observing National Poetry Month means deprivation from comedy and high-brow reading diet?  Tweeting and re-tweeting Issa, Basho, Hass, and Rumi for poetry month is fun for the first two weeks of April but esoteric references get old fast.

So this editing team decide to have fun and be difficult in honor of George Carlin’s memory.

After all, where would we be without people who make us laugh? Comedian Ryan Stout has pain + truth = comedy answer on Twitter.

Surviving a war, famine, natural disaster, abuse or terrorist attack might feel like a hollow victory if if laughter died but you lived. Right?

Photo Credit: LaughingSkullLounge Maria Bamford

Here are 9 Comedians  for age 21 and over recommended by various SmartyFellas for National Poetry Month:

1. Russel Peters
2. George Carlin
3. Mitch Hedberg
4. Maria Bamford
5. Fred Armisten
6. Louis C.K.
7. Gabriel Iglesias
8. Christopher Titus
9. Daniel Tosh

I believe the proverb that the shortest distance between two strangers is laughter. It’s the best of small talk to build rapport. Besides as SmartyGirls and SmartyFellas, life can be a b*tch. Am I right? Laugh a little even if so-and-so doesn’t think the sun shines out your a**.

Here are 8 Most Popular Poets recommended by Youth Librarians for Contemporary Schoolkids for National Poetry Month:

1. Jane Yolen
2. Jack Prelutsky
3. Douglas Florian
4. Langston Hughes
5. Walt Whitman
6. Lee Bennett Hopkins
7. Alice Schertle
8. James Stevenson

And, no, you are not a creeper if you are reading juvenile poetry and you don’t have children! Reminding yourself of what makes all ages laugh, keeps your mind agile. Don’t be a Grouchy Ladybug, treat yourself to one of the poetry bites above.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com James Stevenson National Poetry Month

Expect Flipboard-style graphics, on kids’ hardcover poetry books, like you’d find on your smartphones. Like a bull elephant, these illustrations make an impact. Do great pictures steal the spotlight of word-smithing genius? Let me ask you this, SmartyGirls and SmartyFellas: are you any less smart because you are attractive?

According to the Youth librarians, on the front line in 2013, kids are grabbing poetry books that look as delicious as picture books for the younger set. Think of this as a makeover of news sites for grownups to include larger pictures like a magazine format rather than tiled icons.

Photo Credit: Poetry in Magnets Cultural Partners

Jet-propelled poetry with staggering illustrations still count. Don’t feel guilty. Comment below.