I’m writing this on a train to Galway after spending five days in Dublin, playing tourist at Trinity College, the Temple Bar area, and even enjoying a Guinness at Gravity Bar atop the Guinness Storehouse. We still have several days to explore Ireland, with Belfast on the horizon for Titanic Belfast, the Giants Causeway, and a few Game of Thrones filming sites.
I won’t pretend I have fresh content today. Fortunately, Paul Levitin sent a guest post before I left, and it doesn’t disappoint. Enjoy!
4 Tips I’d Give My 17-Year-Old Self on Day 1 of My Fitness Journey
After nearly ten years working in a gym and collecting plenty of certifications, it’s easy to assume everyone already knows this stuff. The truth is, most people don’t.
If I could start from scratch today, on day one of my fitness journey, what would I do to maximize my time and energy? If I could go back to the first day, what would I tell my younger self?
I know I wasted years at the start, doing the wrong things and spending money on useless supplements and gimmicks like sauna suits. If I could travel back to the first day, here are the four tips I’d share with my 17-year-old self:
1) Don’t overlook the simple. Don’t overvalue the complex.
Small habits matter: parking farther away, taking the stairs, walking to the store instead of driving. It may seem tiny, but those extra steps add up.
Most people think exercise bursts burn a lot of calories. In reality, even a high‑intensity hour burns only a few hundred calories—just a small slice of your daily intake. The vast majority of calories are burned through living: the body’s functions and daily tasks.
A key step toward health is to do more in your non‑exercise time. The walk from the parking lot, the extra stairs, getting off a train a stop early to walk, or choosing to explore a city on foot instead of Ubering—these things seem small, but over days, weeks, months, and years they accumulate. They keep you moving and burning calories, and they’re a foundational habit of healthy people.
2) Healthy eating and weight loss aren’t the same. Exercising for health and exercising for aesthetics aren’t the same either.
This is a common sticking point. As a nutrition coach, I saw many clients—and myself—frustrated by “eating so healthy, but not losing weight.” The goals aren’t the same, and pushed to extremes, they can conflict.
Healthy means different things to different people. A doctor or nutritionist might define healthy as more nutritious foods or more healthy fats, which can add calories. A natural-living mindset might call for fewer artificial ingredients, which can also affect choices and calories. Similarly, exercise can be healthy without helping you look a certain way, just as some workouts aimed at aesthetics might stress the body in ways that aren’t ideal for long-term health.
These aren’t mutually exclusive, but they aren’t automatically aligned either. You can eat in a way that supports both health and weight loss, and you can exercise in a way that helps you look and feel good while improving longevity. The sooner you accept that nuance, the less frustrated you’ll be.
3) Optimal is only optimal if you actually do it. Don’t optimize yourself out of consistency.
I used to chase the most “optimal” approach: squats over leg presses, steady cardio over HIIT, etc. I kept tweaking and adjusting, and eventually where I started diverged far from where I landed.
That isn’t inherently bad; it helped me reach milestones like a big deadlift or low body fat. But others aren’t me. People have lives, families, and limited time. The most optimal plan can fail if it doesn’t fit real life or if it isn’t enjoyable.
While there’s a time and place for doing what’s best, it doesn’t matter if it makes you quit. If you love activities like Zumba or long runs, don’t dismiss them as “not optimal.” Forcing yourself into a rigid box can backfire. Do what works for you, even if it isn’t the single most optimal approach, and stay consistent. A non‑optimal routine done consistently for years beats a perfectly optimal plan you quit after a few weeks.
4) In the long game, consistency wins. This is the long game, whether you like it or not.
As a teen I cared only about looking good right now. If I had to wait, I wanted results tomorrow. I chased endless abs and cardio, and the results didn’t come. It was unsustainable—two‑hour workouts left me exhausted and eventually unable to stick with it.
Life happens, and you age. A plan that only works for a short period isn’t a plan you can rely on for the long term. So think about longevity now. Build a routine you can maintain for years and decades, not just weeks or months.
If you take these four tips to heart, you can create a lifestyle that works for you and that you can sustain. You’ll be healthy and actually enjoy it, not just for a season, but for a long time.
About the author
Paul Levitin spent a decade as a personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach, earning more than 30 certifications. He studied behavior change and became a Board Licensed Health & Wellness Coach (NBHWC). He founded The Healthy Happy Human Academy to help clients address self-sabotage and perfectionism, enabling them to build a healthy, happy life. He aims to bridge fitness and nutrition for people who want to move more, feel better, and live a longer life.
