Next Level University
Confidence, mindset, relationships, limiting beliefs, family, goals, consistency, self-worth, and success are at the core of hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros' heart-driven, no-nonsense approach to holistic self-improvement. This transformative, 7 day per week podcast is focused on helping dream chasers who have been struggling to achieve their goals and are seeking community, consistency and answers. If you've ever asked yourself "How do I get to the next level in my life", we're here for you!
Our goal at NLU is to help you uncover the habits to build unshakable confidence, cultivate a powerful mindset, nurture meaningful relationships, overcome limiting beliefs, create an amazing family life, set and achieve transformative goals, embrace consistency, recognize your self-worth, and ultimately create the fulfillment and success you desire. Let's level up your health, wealth and love!
Next Level University
#1496 - 3 Phrases To Avoid If You're Trying To Improve Your Fitness/Nutrition Gain
The health and fitness industry is notorious for misleading marketing tactics and exaggerated claims. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about the cunning strategies some companies employ to sell their products. From promising instant weight loss to glamorizing the concept of detoxes, the hosts debunk these false narratives and reveal the truth behind them. They discuss the raw reality - success isn't found in a quick-fix product. It's built over time through consistency and discipline.
Links mentioned:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
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The best way to track your habits is here! Download the app: Optimal - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/optimal/
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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 Meetup: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
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Show notes:
[4:16] "Does it all" or "the key"
[6:20] "Detox" or "in just seven days"
[12:50] Nicole shares how Kevin and the Next Level Podcast Solutions team seamlessly help her with her podcast and provide a fantastic experience.
[13:36] "The secret"
[15:33] The next level takes work
[17:48] Maintaining results
[25:10] Outro
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. We hope you enjoyed our latest episode. It was episode number 1495. Should you fake it till you make it today for episode number 1496? Three phrases to avoid if you're trying to improve your fitness slash nutrition game.
Speaker 1:I have been kind of on a a spree lately, alan, and I think you've been doing the same thing of unfollowing people whose content is just Misleading. I don't want to say stupid, but it's misleading, it's dishonest, it's not truthful. And I did this the other day. There was somebody I was following who works in a Multi-level marketing ish and again, if that's your thing, I'm not. I'm not throwing any Negativity on that, but just for context, a multi-level marketing ish company and one of the products is some sort of drink that if you drink for seven days or something, you're supposed to lose a bunch of weight, something like that, I don't know. And I see these all the time and I see these posts all the time and it says this is me when I started and this is me seven days Later. It's like, well, those are the same pictures you used last time, so I don't really think you did it again.
Speaker 1:I think maybe you're lying about this. Unfortunately and We've mentioned this in the past when you are aware, it's very hard to be taken advantage of. So when you, if you're someone who's very familiar with cars and you go to the dealership or you go to the mechanic and they say, yeah, your flux capacitor is off, gonna cost you about 12,000 to get it fixed, and if you said that's not even a real thing, I think that's actually from back to the future. So what's actually going on they said, ah, you got me. Nothing's really wrong, I just wanted the $12,000. But you imagine, when, I when.
Speaker 1:I worked at the gas station back in the day. We had a mechanic and the owner of the gas station was a sleaze bag at the end and he used to rip people off. If you went in for an oil change he would say, oh, you need new tires and you knew alignment. You need to caliper is new brake pads and Unfortunately a lot of people didn't know and I wasn't in the garage so I wasn't partaking in this, but that's Unfortunately.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons car dealerships and mechanics get a bad rap is because there's some people out there that know you don't know, and they will unfortunately take advantage of you. So awareness is a very powerful thing. Alan and I have been in In fitness, in exercising, in nutrition, in the quote-unquote industry for many years 16 for me now, alan, probably what? Almost nine, yeah, nine or ten, that's a long, that's a long time. So I wanted to do this episode because it's almost like If you're a parent and I said, hey, what do I? What should I look out for? How do I know whether or not to buy something? You might say, if it says it's gonna get your baby to sleep immediately, don't buy it because it's probably a waste of money it doesn't work or Whatever right.
Speaker 1:If your awareness is higher, you're gonna see words and you're gonna say that's not real. That's just that's not real. So I wanted to give a list of words, statements, phrases. First one if you see a social media post and it talks about how this drink does it all, this drink is the key to their weight loss. This drink is the key to the results you want. This drink is all you have to do. You don't have to change anything else. That is most likely BS. I would say 99.99999999% of the time, because it's most likely Some sort of marketing scheme that is not gonna get you results.
Speaker 2:Again, what would be a truthful statement? To replace it, this drink will Will.
Speaker 1:Some what hell this, this drink, might help your appetite. It might help, okay, coffee. Coffee can help suppress your appetite a little bit because of the caffeine a little bit.
Speaker 2:It's not this drink I'm not gonna be full after I drink this. This drink will will change your life forever. Yeah, that's the only that actually is true. Coffee is the best.
Speaker 1:No, I'm kidding, it's, it's. I don't know if you'd really see anything out there in a way, because you it would be very hard to make a product successful if you said, yeah, this will help a little. It'll probably help you a little bit. So. I don't know, I don't see a good point, it might be this is this really water?
Speaker 2:If you drink the right amount of ounces of this per day, you will gradually potentially lose weight. If you also eat less calories. Yes, you and I would be awful at marketing.
Speaker 1:It wouldn't be very good. It wouldn't be very good. Now there are maybe. The true statement would be this is supplemental. This is a supplemental thing that will help you if you are already engaging in exercise and watching your food consumption. But again, that's not very sexy. Nobody's going to buy that, most likely.
Speaker 1:Number two anytime you hear the word detox, you need this detox 21 day detox, 30 day detox, seven day detox, and if they show you the difference before and after is weight loss, I am willing to bet it is garbage, because that's not how it works. Think of it this way what are the odds that there is a company that has figured out something that nobody else has ever figured out when it comes to weight loss and it's some sort of detox? Now is there like a can you do a dopamine detox and a social media detox and a whatever? Yes, you can do detoxes, aka not consuming something that you've been consuming for a long period of time. You can do a caffeine detox, whatever, but that's not going to create a result when it comes to fitness, nutrition, weight loss, weight gain. It's not going to work that way. It doesn't work that way. This is many of the people I've had to unfollow because really what they're doing is they're taking advantage of people who just aren't aware.
Speaker 1:Oh, the seven day detox, the seven day reset, I lost seven pounds in a week? No, you didn't. There's no chance you actually lost seven pounds of meaningful weight in a week?
Speaker 2:No way, no. If anything, it could have been water weight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and you could do that without this.
Speaker 2:You could probably yeah.
Speaker 1:You could do that without this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, With the fighters that weigh in right. Yes, yeah, I lost when I did the. So for the new listeners. Kevin and I had a bet that we would both lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. 10 pounds in 12 weeks, Was it 10 pounds in?
Speaker 1:10? No 10 in 10. 10 in 10.
Speaker 2:That was a terrible idea and I was behind. I weighed myself like the Thursday before and we were going to basically, on Monday we will have had to have weighed in and taken a picture of it and we're very, very honest. So there is no lying with us and I I weighed in like I think I needed to be below 180 and I waited at like 180 for on the Thursday before I was in serious trouble. So I decided to be extremely reckless and I did actually a full marathon, dehydrated Do not do that. It was on a hot summer day and the first half marathon went awesome. The second half marathon I was the walking dead by the end of it. I did finish it but I was hobbling and I lost. I weighed in at 179. Yeah, it was like holy cow.
Speaker 2:That was. That was a good five, six pounds yeah.
Speaker 1:Five pounds. That's what fighters do. There was a there's a fight this Saturday. It was this whole thing's been mayhem. People are getting injured. So somebody filled in on 11 days notice and he has to lose 25 pounds in like six days.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's all water.
Speaker 2:It'll all be yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not great, it's not healthy, it's not good for you, that's bad, it's not good for you, but he will do it and he's a sicko, he's a champion, he's a sicko, but 25 pounds in six days. Yeah, yeah, how much oh my god, it's just all water. Yeah, of course, and you wait. I mean, you weigh in and then you go, and then you go, I drink, yeah. So again right back.
Speaker 2:We're off, we're off on a tangent here, but it's gonna be like a skinny mini guy getting Getting fought by someone who was 20 pounds heavier.
Speaker 1:No, no, they're both. They both weigh the same. Oh, they do, yeah, yeah, they're both cutting weight, they. That's. That's why fighting is very unhealthy, because you, you cut a lot of weight. You pretty much dehydrate, dehydrate yourself to the point of.
Speaker 2:I went to college with a High school champion wrestler, best in the country, and he used to have to cut weight. He it was oh, yeah, yeah, man I used to lift with him. Is this echo?
Speaker 1:It's very unhealthy. People die every, every year, especially wrestlers. Wrestlers die a lot, it's it's common. It's common because you cut so much water weight that your body shuts down and getting rid of all the water. But again, tangent, that's it. That's a tangent. But if you, if you see somebody saying this detox, I'm telling you I've never seen one that actually works In my 13 years of fitness experience. I've never seen one that's actually real. So take that for what it's worth. Again, take it with a grain of salt if you want to try it, more power to you. But usually these are multi-level marketing companies that have a product that doesn't work, but somebody's really good at sales and they get results without the product and then they help people sell the product. It's a whole thing, okay. Third one in just seven days. If you see some post starting in just seven days, run in the other direction Because by definition, that's if it's in just seven days, it's not sustainable. First of all, it's most likely.
Speaker 2:What about my post? In just seven days, if you're very disciplined, you could lose a half a pound. You could lose a half a pound in seven days, for sure. There you go. Yeah, I don't want any other direction. That's truth.
Speaker 1:Well, that's fair, that's fair, I'm good. It's almost like if it sounds. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And I would go a layer deeper. If everything somebody is saying Makes you say, oh yes, good, awesome, that actually makes it easier. Okay, cool, that's actually saving me from all the work that I didn't want to do. If it's replacing all the effort you didn't want to do, it's most likely not true, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:If you think about it now are there some cases like next level podcast solutions. We replace a lot of the effort, but I still tell our clients you're gonna have to work very hard. Just because we're doing this does not mean you're gonna blow up. It's not. It's not the fix.
Speaker 1:I had clients. I had a client call yesterday and they said how do you, how do you feel about everything that's going on, the listens and all that? And I said I feel really good based on everything we're doing. I was actually pleasantly surprised when I saw the numbers and they said one of the things I've enjoyed about when working with you is you always talk about how this is a long game. I don't care about. Seven days from today, it doesn't matter. Seven days from today does not matter if you don't Do another seven days and then seven weeks, and then seven months and then seven years doesn't really matter that much. So that's another phrase that I would run from. And then the last one the secret diet, the secret supplement, the secret mix, the secret blah, blah, blah, blah, blah Again, tip pro tip.
Speaker 1:The secret thing most likely isn't true, because If it was a secret, why would they be selling it? First of all, wouldn't you want to keep the secret for yourself? It was actually a secret, and and secrets don't stay very long, so everybody would know about it and you'd hear more people talking about it. I Would also throw out there, just just reiterating, if it sounds too good to be true. And what somebody is talking about directly connects to All of the pain points that you're struggling with and how you can overcome all of those without any work in In anything. It's probably not real.
Speaker 2:In anything, it's probably a horrible one for you, kev, this is good.
Speaker 1:These. I don't like these because I don't want. I don't want people to think I'm a hater and I'm not, I just.
Speaker 2:You're not brother. This is this. Is you trying to help people? I am, of course, of course, but it's just it's.
Speaker 1:It's very frustrating when you see People being taken advantage of people being taken advantage of by people who I think know are taking advantage of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I used to. It used to be really hard because it would be like, well, that person's a really good person, they're just selling a product or something. And now it's like, I don't know. I Mean, I'm not saying they're not a good person, but morally and ethically I Don't know. There's that's a very slippery slope. If you, if you know that's not what you did to get the results and you're trying to tell other people that's what they can use to get the results, that rubs me the wrong way for sure makes sense, I appreciate it Well, so I appreciate you appreciating it, Of course for the listeners.
Speaker 2:This is a vulnerable episode for Kev because he doesn't want to come off as negative. That's all. That's all this and that's the end of the day. Life is both positive and negative. You listen to this show heart driven, but no BS. Heart driven, we want to see you win. We know your future is bright. We know you can do it. We believe in you. We know you can reach the next level, whatever that is for you. But we also know that it's going to take work, it's going to take sacrifice.
Speaker 2:You're not going to do it with a shake, and I think that, when it comes to the secret thing, you know. Here's the secret Work harder, work smarter, be more intelligent, make better choices, read great books, listen to great podcasts, stay motivated. You know self-discipline. That's the real secret Self-discipline. Get yourself to do hard things that other people don't want to do. I say this to Kev every single time, without fail. I mean anytime I've forgotten to say this, I end up texting him saying, hey, I forgot to say it. There's two things I always say. I'll do it. After we are done recording these three episodes, I'm going to say another nail in the structure. In this case, I'll say another three nails in the structure, you know, because we're building something great, I believe. And then the second thing is keep doing the hard things no one else wants to do, and that's what's going to make the difference. That is, we're going to look back five, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now and we're going to know that was it. We did the hard stuff. That was uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:I said this yesterday. We had a pretty heavy team call, not heavy in a bad way, but I said, the results we all desire are hidden in the work that we avoid. And I just wonder if we had the thought of, instead of focusing on what would work the fastest, what if we focused on what would be the most sustainable to do long term? I am willing to bet, if that little pivot became part of our identity our as in everybody in NLU, the whole community I think you'd be more successful holistically, definitely. I really do Definitely 100%, because you can't. It's not about the next seven days. It's not about the next seven days, it's about the next seven years, it's about the rest of your life. And it's not about how fast can we get results. It's about how can we maintain the results we're getting and I just think that's a very important pivot. And again, I'm on a diet right now. I'm down I don't know 10 pounds. I started at 189.
Speaker 2:I'm at 178.
Speaker 1:Which shake did you do? The NLU shake? Yeah, the NLU shake. I just drink that and it's working. But I've measured every calorie. I've done cardio. I'm lifting six days a week. The reason I'm getting the result is because of the effort, not because of something secret. There is no secret to what I'm doing and I wouldn't tell you that if I didn't think it'd empower you.
Speaker 2:The secret is doing the hard things that other people don't want to do. Yes, real quick. I know we get a jump We've got two more episodes to do but this is the reason why this is my favorite book. It's the opening page and it's the compound effect. This is the book that I got all those years ago. It's all tattered and I think I spilled coffee on it. It's kind of gross, to be honest, but anyways, it's always behind me. You can't really see it on YouTube anymore because we zoomed in, but it's always behind me.
Speaker 2:This book is about success and what it really takes to earn it. It's time someone told it to you straight. You've been bamboozled for too long. There is no magic bullet, secret formula or quick fix. You don't make $200,000 a year spending two hours a day on the internet, lose 30 pounds in a week, rub 20 years off your face with a cream, fix your love life with a pill or find lasting success with any other scheme. That is too good to be true. It would be great if you could buy your success, fame, self-esteem, good relationships and health and well-being in a nicely calm, clam-shelled package at your local Walmart, but that's just not how it works.
Speaker 2:We are constantly bombarded with increasingly sensational claims to get rich, get fit, get younger, get sexier all overnight, with very little effort and for only three easy payments of $39.95. These repetitive marketing messages have distorted our sense of what it really takes to succeed. We've lost sight of the simple but profound fundamentals of what it takes to be successful. I'm tired of it. I won't sit back and watch these reckless messages derail people any longer. I wrote this book to take you back to the basics. This is the compound effect. That's the opening paragraph. That's why I love this book is because it's just no nonsense. It's just the truth.
Speaker 2:We all have a choice. If you want to be successful, you will have to sacrifice, struggle, suffer and then get success. If you don't want to be successful, you can do what's comfortable and easy. We all know that. We all know that. I mean you got to have the uncomfortable conversation with your partner and you have to do the uncomfortable workout. You have to read the books you don't want to read. Do you know how many books I read that I don't want to read? It's always going to be more fun to watch friends than listen to this podcast. Obviously, right.
Speaker 1:Unless, you hate friends.
Speaker 2:What'd you say? I said unless you hate friends. Unless you hate friends. Yeah, at the end of the day, the hard but necessary things that are required of you to succeed, to get to the next level, are worth it. They're not easy, they're not fun. They're never going to be stopped trying to make them fun At the end of the day, just they are worth it and your future self will thank you. And we all have a choice. We can. We can choose short term easy, quick fixes that aren't real, or we can do the hard and necessary work that that it really takes to actually be fulfilled.
Speaker 2:And the very last thing I'll share is Kevin and myself were on the NLU team huddle yesterday. We're grateful to now have a 20 person team and everyone on the huddle and it wasn't all 20 of us. A lot of them are in the Philippines and different time zones but on the huddle I said everyone here is the most overwhelmed they've ever been. We're all on the struggle bus and we're all very challenged. But I've asked many of you because I coach the team we're all the most fulfilled we've ever been. Fulfillment is a byproduct of struggle in the direction of your dreams, challenge and growth, and You're not gonna get that from a shake. You're not gonna get that from a secret. You're not gonna get that from Seven days of anything and, yeah, I love this episode.
Speaker 2:I I Always am a man of truth. I think truth is what will set you free, and Uncomfortable, unpleasant truths are things that I've been facing since I was a kid and I'm never gonna stop.
Speaker 1:Next elimination. As you have heard me mentioned over the last week or so, our next monthly meetup is On Thursday, november 2nd, at 6 pm Eastern time. How to communicate a vulnerable truth. That is another thing that is challenging you. I've heard a lot of people say oh, my relationship is awesome and it's easy and we never disagree and we never have Any conflict, and it's just easy and amazing. It's like I don't really believe that. I don't think that's true, unless both of you are just so transcended that I Don't know. You're living in your own worlds and it's just amazing. I don't know. I feel like there's conflict and everything but vulnerability is one way to cut through conflict. So we will be talking about Communicating vulnerably. What is the process? How do we face that? What are the results of that? That will be what that meetup is on and, as always, it is totally private. It's not recorded. You don't have to participate. You can have your camera off, you can have your microphone off or you can ask questions, whatever you feel is the best for you.
Speaker 2:If you want to read books like the compound effect, I told book club on Saturday I reiterate this constantly because I think repetition is important I Say we're not here. Book club was on fire and we had, I think, 16, 16 people 15, 16 people in the room and I said this is awesome, and especially the new members of book club, welcome to book club. You don't know what you got yourself into being playful and I essentially said we're not here to just read books, we're here to improve our lives and we're gonna read books that are truthful, that actually help you improve your life. And we all set intentions at the end like it really isn't just let's read books for fun. That's not what book club is about. Book club is about improving your real life in the real world, with real people.
Speaker 2:And If you want to read books like the compound effect, a lot of these books are books that aren't aren't the ones that these people are Normally drawn to, and because of that, I've had them reach out and say, holy crap, this book is amazing. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful, because it isn't necessarily a book they would have read on their own accord and that's okay. So if you want to join book club. The link will be in the show notes to join us. You can also email me out at next level universe comm. Give me your name and email, I'll register you and it is every Saturday 12 30 pm Eastern Standard Time and I hope to see you there tomorrow for episode number 1497 the difference between growing around it and growing through it.
Speaker 1:Very similar? Well, not really. I guess we're on a theme this week of Doing the hard but necessary and maybe just Understanding the level of truth that you're gonna need to get to where you want to go, so that this will be another somewhat hardcore episode. I'm very much looking forward to that one. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and an L you. We do it at fans. We have family. We'll talk to you all tomorrow.
Speaker 2:The secret is there is no secret. Next explanation Strong work.
