Next Level University

#1752 - Lessons From The 10LB In 10 Week Challenge

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 22:33

Can staying consistent help you reach your fitness goals? Join Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros as they share their experiences from the “10-Pound in 10-Week Challenge.” Discover the simple, decisive steps they took to make a big difference in their fitness journey. This episode is packed with practical tips and inspiration, whether you’re taking the challenge or just looking to improve your health and fitness. Tune in for an engaging and motivational conversation!

Link mentioned:
Next Level Group Coaching - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
Group 15 - starts on (Tuesday) July 9th, 2024, at 5 PM EST.
Discount Code for N.L. Group Coaching (30% off): NLULISTENER

______________________

NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

_______________________

Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
Next Level Monthly Meet-up:  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

_______________________

We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

_______________________

Show notes:
(2:04) Lessons on consistency and weight loss
(6:12) The power of belonging and group accountability
(8:48) Curating your media consumption for motivation
(12:03) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/f1FWAQA
(13:23) Coloring all the stuff around you
(16:06) Motivated unconsciously
(17:56) C

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Lessons From 10-Pound Challenge

Speaker 1

Next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today for episode number 1,752, lessons from the 10-pound in 10-week challenge. So I believe we are. Do you know how many days in we are?

Speaker 2

We have 48 left. I want to say Hold on.

Speaker 1

So that's seven weeks.

Speaker 2

How many days until august 10th 40?

Speaker 1

40 days, so we have six weeks left, so we are four weeks in correct, cool, I'm 5.7 weeks, to be exact okay, we have a.

Speaker 1

So alan and I, as you you know, if you are a longer term listener we did the same thing last year or two years ago I think it was two years ago, believe it or not where we said we want to focus more on fitness, we want to start tracking our macros and our calories. We're not going to do it unless we put some skin in the game. So if we don't accomplish our goal, we're going to skip it. We'll miss an episode. Miss an episode. If I don't do 10 pounds in 10 weeks, I won't get to show up. If Alan doesn't do 10 pounds in 10 weeks, he doesn't get to show up. If neither of us make it, we'll miss an episode you had a breakthrough, whoa.

Speaker 2

That's part of why I'm burning out 100%. Yeah, not enough food. I'm down 5.4 pounds and I'm eating so much less than I used to.

Speaker 1

So much less. Yeah, that'll do it. That's such a part of it. Yeah, wow, that was a breakthrough right there. Yeah, there we go. So we're doing the same thing as Alan kind of just alluded to, and when we decided to do it, alan said I'm going to make a WhatsApp group because I'm sure there's probably other people in the community that want to do some sort of journey. Maybe it's not 10 pounds in 10 weeks, maybe it's not 10 weeks, maybe it's not 10 pounds. Whatever it is, let's do it. Let's have a WhatsApp group.

Speaker 2

Shout out to everyone who had the courage to send me their starting weight, had the courage to join, had the courage to get extra accountability.

Speaker 1

I think a lot of success is just having courage and shout out to everybody being super consistent in the group, super, super, super consistent.

Speaker 1

I think this is the most whatsapp engagement we've ever gotten on anything, yeah, so shout out to everybody in the group. One thing that really jumped off the page and we were talking about what are the top lessons? We just the previous advice was about advice. This is about lessons from, from this challenge.

Speaker 1

I understand why weight loss is so challenging, because, from day to day, if you said to yourself I'm going to give it a week to see what happens, you're most likely not going to stick with it, because in a week, very little actually happens. I always say this when I go on other podcasts. They say why is consistency so important? And I usually use the example I'll do the splits analogy of if you had a year, if I was going to give you a million dollars, if you were able to do the splits in a year, how often would you train the splits Every day, right? And they say yeah, and I say well, what happens if you only do it five times a week? Four times a week, three times a week, twice a week, once a week If?

Speaker 2

you do it once a week. Sometimes I wonder if you should bring more of that stuff on our show. I probably should.

Speaker 1

Well, all of it comes from questions. When I get asked questions, these things pop into my brain.

Speaker 2

When you ask a question, they're like if you could change the universe in one way.

Speaker 1

What would it be? I've never, asked you that and I would make gravity a little bit less, so I could jump higher and dunk Nice. A little bit less, so I could jump higher and dunk Nice.

Speaker 1

A little bit less. It would have to be less. Right for me to jump higher. Yes, okay, just want to make sure, but where was I going with that? So, yeah, that's what I talk about consistency, I understand, with weight loss, I gain weight in the first week when I start dieting.

Speaker 1

Usually. That's just usually how it happens. That's the worst and it's not ideal. And I can sense a lot of that in the group, where I love the fact that everyone's measuring every day and everybody's super consistent with that.

Speaker 1

But you, it's dangerous to measure it and then let emotions get involved if there's not a long enough period of time yet. Yeah, that's like the biggest lesson for me, because you and I have been doing fitness and weight loss and bodybuilding and all this stuff for a long time. I'm sure in the beginning I was very much that way because you don't have a baseline. But the fact that I can say I usually gain weight in the first week the only reason I know that is because I've done enough weeks, enough times, to get enough data. So that's one of the biggest lessons for me is that. The second one is if you have a group around you doing the same thing you're doing, you are going to be way, way, way, way more consistent and you're going to be held accountable to a different standard that was mine I stole yours accountability.

Speaker 2

I think the core of our being craves belonging. Emilia is the one who helped me understand this. She and I have been discussing behind the scenes I used to not talk about stuff like this, but behind the scenes we've been talking about maslow's hierarchy of needs and how we think it's wrong.

Speaker 1

Now, by wrong I don't mean all of it's wrong.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I don't mean all of it's wrong, I just mean it doesn't have belonging on there. And you'll notice our fulfillment pyramid for NLU that we use in group coaching. We have belonging on there. So the bottom of the pyramid is physical needs, then it's mental and emotional needs, then eventually it's spiritual needs and it's five levels. Next level university is the pun intended. So level one through five and belonging is huge, zero to ten. How much of a sense of belonging do you have, kev?

Speaker 1

just in life.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you feel like you're a part of something meaningful. You feel like Ten, yeah, okay. So Kev has the 10-pound and 10-week challenge community. He has the Next Level Nation community and private Facebook group. He has the NLU team. He has Taryn Taryn's family, his family. He has his best friend, matt.

The power of belonging and group accountability

Speaker 2

There's a lot of belonging in your life. You're not lonely, and that's one of the base drives in our nature is to not be lonely, and so I think that my biggest takeaway for the 10-pound and 10-week challenge that I've learned is how on fire everyone is. When the group is on fire, it's like a sports team that's winning and they have momentum and everyone just wants to. Not, it's twofold. Everyone wants to win the Super Bowl, metaphorically, or the World Cup or whatever it is, but it's also no one wants to let the team down.

Speaker 2

It's both sides. It's fear driving you don't want to let the team down but it's also aspiration driving of let's win together, let's do this thing. And so you and I decided to do the 10-pound and 10-week challenge so we could have more accountability to each other, to the listeners, to the community. This WhatsApp group has ignited my fitness game a lot and I don't think I'm as susceptible to the need for belonging as a lot of people are, and I think that that stems from just being behind the scenes, trying to achieve in a dark room by myself, having no friends. But at the end of the day it's been a huge uptick. I mean, my motivation in fitness has increased by a significant margin with this challenge.

Speaker 1

Another thing I've learned and it's not just from the 10 pound and 10 a week challenge, but just in general what I what I have on my YouTube watch history is a really good suggestion of where I'm going, because when I'm dieting and I'm exercising and I'm lifting and I feel like a bodybuilder, I watch a lot of bodybuilding content. I've been watching old DVDs on YouTube from like 2005.

Speaker 2

Really.

Speaker 1

Yeah, like Ronnie Coleman, jay Cutler, some of the best bodybuilders of all time Nice and again. I'm not going to do a competition or anything like that, but for me it's more. I like thinking about it more. I also, if you looked on my Instagram feed, it's all food. I have this weird thing where I like watching food when I'm hungry. I don't know why it's a problem.

Speaker 2

Nice. I don't know why it's a problem.

Speaker 1

Nice, when I was in bodybuilding prep, I watched every episode of Chopped. Chopped is a show where they I don't know, have you ever seen Chopped? Probably not. No, my goodness, you've missed out on so much quality material in your life. I hurt for you, for me. I hurt for me from you, for me.

Curating your media consumption for motivation

Speaker 2

It's hurt for me from you for me, it's a show where you're given a mystery basket and then you have to cook the best. Oh yeah, I've seen it on. Yep.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I know you have and it's the best, love it. I would watch every single episode when I was, when I was bodybuilding, and then I'd eat my chicken, rice and broccoli and then be hungry for the rest of the night. Just the thing. I don't know. It's weird, but that's that's been. Another thing for me is maybe it's just a me thing. Your YouTube watch history is a really good suggestion of where you're trending towards, because usually when I'm watching YouTube I am relaxing. Relaxing or eating. Those are usually the two, only two times I really watch YouTube, unless I'm listening to like a musical playlist in the morning, my deep focus stuff.

Speaker 2

We should do an episode on that at some point, because that's a fundamental principle, idea, concept understanding. Inputs direct your life. If you look at what books I'm listening to, what courses I'm taking, what YouTube videos I'm watching, it's always a good indicator of where we're headed. No-transcript If you're a client out there listening, I most likely have recommended books. Almost always it's.

Speaker 2

I always ask in my coaching calls what books are you reading? Or what book are you reading? Usually I say books, but uh, who was it? Shout out to sarah. I'll do first names only. She's like well, I wanted to wait to finish atomic habits before I came into book club. I said don't wait, let's rock and roll. Yeah, don't waste momentum, let's do this. But inputs what you're putting in your brain is the ingredients to use chopped. As an analogy, they have a certain basket of ingredients and then you can make a certain meal. Whatever your imagine. Your future is the meal and the basket of ingredients is what you're putting in your brain. Through books, audio programs, courses, this podcast. I've noticed a huge uptick, kev, I've never talked to you about this yet. I used to be too cowardly to ask my clients to listen to NLU and now I have noticed such a huge uptick in their productivity when they do. I said Now I have noticed such a huge uptick in their productivity when they do. I said imagine having your coach in your ear every single morning.

Speaker 2

Imagine, if your coach was there to keep you accountable every single day. That's what NLU can be. Let me be in your ear every day, pushing you.

Speaker 1

It helps you lock the identity in. I am a person who is into self-improvement. When you're in a WhatsApp group about fitness fitness, because it's not just about weight loss, it's about self improvement, whatever that means to you. I am the type of person that Goes and does blank. I go for runs, I go for walks, I do yoga, whatever it is.

Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy:

Speaker 1

I cook my own meals at home, I try to eat healthy, and it just becomes an identity thing and I think that's big for me because I, when I say I am something I tend to like, really do it when I was doing jujitsu. So I stopped. I stopped doing jujitsu because it just I wasn't going as often as I needed to to justify the money and I'd rather just go to the gym and lift heavy weight. Honestly, it was kind of at that point where I had to choose I'm going to do three days at the gym and three days at jujitsu. Whoops, just threw my pen. I'd rather do seven days at the gym. I don't want to be missing workouts. I love weight training more than I think I realized because I was adopting an identity of somebody who does jujitsu.

Speaker 1

But when I was doing jujitsu, my YouTube was all jujitsu stuff. Every single recommended video was jujitsu. Now it's mostly bodybuilding. Yeah, because I was watching stuff. How do you do this, how do you do that? So that's that's been. Another important lesson is whatever you decide you want to do is most likely coloring all the stuff around you. Yeah, that's an episode for sure.

Speaker 2

People places things, ideas, feelings. Yep, that's really good. I actually recommend books to my clients based on what they're struggling with. One of the reasons why I struggle to read certain books is because it's not what I'm in at the time. It's not what I need at the time.

Coloring all the stuff around you

Speaker 2

I that course that I bought. It's called jumpstart. It's all about your habits and how to stay consistent and how to design your life in a way where you avoid distractions. That's what I wanted at that time. I didn't want emotional intelligence. Yeah, that's why the book that that time I didn't want emotional intelligence. Yeah, that's why the book that I bought yesterday at Barnes and Noble was about leadership. I'm trying to stay in my lane, so to speak, but anyway. So the 10 pound and 10 week challenge, number one you're going to be way more motivated unconsciously, I think most motivation is unconscious. That's why people put posters up in their room and that's also why we avoid communities. You ever gone to this is a good metaphor you ever gone to a party where you were fashionably late, like a day drinking barbecue or something and you came at like five when everyone else was already sloshed? No, Okay.

Speaker 1

Yeah, no, I'm usually the first one there. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm usually the first one there.

Speaker 2

Alright, Okay, let's do the reverse of this. You ever been day drinking Since like 11am and then the sober people arrive Around like 6 and it's still light out and you kind of avoid them Unconsciously Because you're Slurring your words and a mess.

Speaker 1

I'd say that's probably Fairly accurate.

Speaker 2

I think all of us are trying to. We feel like we don't fit in, so we avoid groups where we feel like we don't fit in. And I want to say this to the NLU community anyone out there listening or watching what if this is what's happening? Well, I'm not into fitness yet, so I'm not going to join the 10 pound and 10 week challenge. But what if you joining in advance with courage and vulnerability, would actually get you to start? Yeah, and so it's kind of that confidence conundrum that you created of, well, I don't have the identity yet, so I can't join the group. Well, if you join the group without the identity, you might get the identity and then actually start taking the actions that would reinforce that identity. And so that's a whole other episode too. But I think identity James Clear says it in Atomic Habits. He says every action you take is a vote for the identity that you want. I also think that the group you're in is a vote for the identity you want.

Speaker 1

I would second that and maybe you identify as someone who is interested in fitness. You don't have to be into it yet. Yep, someone who is interested in learning more about fitness. What are we going to do after the 10 weeks with a group?

Speaker 2

I don't know, maybe we'll keep it open as like a fitness something. That's what I was thinking Some sort of a yeah, some sort of a Fitness Fitness something. Some sort of a fitness-oriented health and fitness-oriented group. And we can post in there when we do our workouts. I haven't posted as much in there as I wanted to. I hadn't even thought about it. To be honest with you, I only thought about it.

Motivated unconsciously

Speaker 1

I'm just trying to get through this 10-pound and 10-pound challenge. Yeah, no, no, same, same. But I only thought about it because you and I it's not like you and I are going to stop lifting, so we might as well keep it going. And if we can help with accountability, Agreed, I'm in. But we'll discuss that after I put Alan on the spot with it. Any other lessons you've learned from the 10 pound and 10 pound challenge?

Speaker 2

No, I think the group coaching thing that we're going to talk. If you want the identity of someone who's consistent, if you want the identity of someone who's motivated, if you want the identity of someone who tracks habits, if you want the identity of someone who's into self-improvement, group coaching you'll cultivate the identity. It's almost like you want social pressure. We all know what peer pressure feels like. We all remember what it was like to feel pressured into something we didn't want to do feels like. We all remember what it was like to feel pressured into something we didn't want to do. Why not use peer pressure to do what you do want to do? I think that's. That's like a cheat code.

Speaker 2

Man, I, we have the greatest advantage. We're, we're super consistent and I'm I know that I would want to believe I'd be consistent without the community, without the team, without emilia I don't. I know that I wouldn't not, as not as emilia and I. We've exercised for 30 minutes a day, minimum every day, for two and I think 2.4 years now, or 2.35. There's no chance I would do that without her, no chance. My goal was to beat four months and she's the one who wanted to keep going. So better together is a thing, especially for heart-driven people, and I really hope people join group 15 because it will. It will change your life if you let it.

Speaker 1

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. We've seen a lot of really impactful shifts in a relatively short amount of time. It's not that long.

Speaker 2

If you think about it, someone lost 18 pounds last group, I know I know.

Cultivating your identity

Speaker 1

So again, if you're someone who wants to maintain momentum throughout the summer and maybe you identify as someone who is into self-improvement but you want to go a little bit deeper, you listen to a self-improvement podcast that does an episode every day. Maybe you're listening every day. It's a great opportunity to dig a little deeper and see what happens. I promise you're safe. I promise you're safe, I promise you'll grow and I promise it'll be a positive experience. So we'll have the link in the show notes for that what do you got?

Speaker 2

90% of success, I think, is courage and humility and self-belief Particularly courage and humility, though, because self-belief will come when you come to the group. So I just want to encourage everyone listening or watching, if you've ever thought about doing group coaching have the courage to give it a shot, and your future self will thank you At the end of the day. I've heard this a ton Kev. I'm just not ready yet. I'm just not ready. I'm just not ready. You won't feel ready until after you join in a way, and courage is necessary, Courage is necessary, and we'll give you your money back.

Speaker 1

If you sign up and you join and you say, look, this is a right piece of shit, we'll just give you your money back. It's all good. It's all good.

Speaker 2

Maybe say it a little nicer than that, If you could we'd appreciate it.

Speaker 1

But if that's the truth of it, then that's the truth of it and we'll give you your money back. Not a win-win-win, it's a loss and we always try to operate that way, so we'll have the link in the show notes. Any quick other, any lessons. Promo code Promo code NLULISTENER will give you 30% off. It ends up being $96.60 per month and there's two calls with Alan and I per month and two calls with the amazing Amy, our assistant coach, and just amazing. Just crushes everything she does and is really good at bringing people together and building community.

Speaker 2

And she's been down 20 plus pounds since being on the team. She's killing it. That comes to 12 sessions. So 90 days, one session every single week, 12 sessions. I think it comes to less than $25 per session. It's the most affordable. Coaching on purpose by design.

Speaker 1

I thought you were going to say on the planet.

Speaker 2

I probably do, honestly, it might be.

Speaker 1

It is very possible. I would say it's per dollar, it's the most valuable. That's what I would say, yeah fair. Because I don't know what other people are charging around the world for coaching. All right, as always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2

Stay a part of great communities. Next civilization.

Head Shot

Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host