It's silly, it's serious, and it's something I would love to give to you. It's the way I feel right now as I type this. It's far more than fine, all in my admittedly little world is perfectly aligned, and I'm excited about the day's prospects.

What makes this on-top-of-the-world feeling all the more exhilarating is recognizing that I could just as easily - and probably should! - be feeling as if someone just whacked me in the forehead with a frying pan more than a few times.It's 5 a.m. on Monday, March 28, and school has not been in session since Wednesday. During that time, I've done a fair amount of work around the house, ridden a little more than 240 miles outside (plus a few more indoors) and lifted weights once.It's raining like crazy and it's supposed to continue for some time. As a result, I'll do my scheduled two-hour ride inside. Recently, I've made some subtle adjustments to my training routine and my eating patterns, and I guess those changes have really paid dividends, because I'm champing at the proverbial bit to see if these 55-year-old legs (and 55-year-old mind) can handle one final hard workout in a six-day training block.But I don't intend to write about the results of this workout.Today's the day we do what we can to help you feel the euphoria that I'm currently feeling. And I can't help but believe the key is contained in a concept covered in last week's column.Let's expand the idea in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) that "all food and beverage choices matter" to all that you choose to do all day long matters to your overall health and fitness.You need to realize that it's not a single thing - a new workout routine at the health club, a conscious commitment to get more sleep, an elimination of that one junk food that you always seem to overeat - but the comprehensive sum of all things that determines how you feel and function each day.More importantly, you need to understand that you're in control of that comprehensive sum. You're the one who needs to make alterations and adjustments because, unfortunately, there is no one-dose-for-all prescription. But that's half the fun of being fully engaged in the game called experimenting to improve health and fitness.And if you could somehow feel the euphoria I'm feeling right now, you'd know in an instance that it's a game worth playing. Fortunately, it's not a difficult game if you recognize opinions masquerading as facts and simply feel what you're feeling.Consider what S. Jay Olshansky, School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago said about the matter for a Time magazine article (Feb 22-9, 2016) titled "It's the Little Things": "In general, I follow my body. It really tells me lots of stories."If I eat something and my body doesn't like it, it basically lets me know. A lot of people don't know how to listen to their own bodies. I learned to listen a long time ago."Like Olshansky, I'll listen to the stories told by my body. Some of the most interesting ones, I've found, explain the different types of tired I encounter.For instance, I can sometimes feel exhausted after a day of teaching, yet benefit from a long and exhausting workout immediately afterward. Better still, I can feel even more energized after I eat, shower, and stretch.At other times, however, that exhausted during-school feeling tells me that it's better to do a more moderate ride to promote recovery than to ride long and hard.I decide which to do after "listening" to my body explain if I'm mentally or physically tired, as well as if the physical fatigue is from a single workout or cumulative. My best listening occurs as I climb stairs during the school day.If I get a deep, close-to-the-bone, muscular discomfort ascending stairs - a sort of muscular toothache - my body is telling me that I've ridden too hard for too many days and to back off for a bit.But if I the muscular discomfort I feel climbing stairs is more superficial, it's often no more than an "exercise hangover" from the previous day or manifestation of school-day mental malaise.In either situation, I still ride hard after school. I may ease into the workout, but after 15 or 20 minutes of being outdoors and doing one progressive, lung-expanding effort, I almost always feel better than I did during school and feel a desire to do more hard efforts.If I don't feel that desire, I listen to what my body is saying and moderate the effort.I share how I listen to my legs because I know too many people who forego an after-work workout because they feel a type of fatigue at the end of the work day. But mental fatigue and physical fatigue are two different animals.Treat them as such and you'll get more from your workouts.Contact the Fitness Master at

kolo@ptd.net