Energy Express by Marilynn Preston

Congress will continue to debate the Public Option, but I've already made up my mind. The public — that's you and me and everyone in the country — must opt for a healthier, happier lifestyle or we'll go broke trying to keep up with demand.

That's the only Public Option you can really count on. For now, we the people need to choose the healthier options over the ones that make us weaker, sicker, fatter and less happy:

Like eating more veggies and grains and going cold turkey on red meat, even if it's just for five out of 21 meals a week.

Like opting to climb the stairs instead of using the escalator, moving at a comfortable pace, breathing to stay focused, big smile at the top.

Like scheduling ourselves for more time at play, and making sure our kids are outdoors and active doing the same.

Like opting for all salad dressing and sauces on the side, saving gajillions of calories by gently flavoring your food with drips off your fork.

Like opting to take every moment of your vacation time, and turning off your cell phone when you do.

Like opting to park your car at the farthest parking space instead of the closest, striving for 5,000 to 10,000 steps a day.

Like opting for non-toxic cleaning products and non-toxic paints, finishes and furniture in your houses and apartments. Many airborne illnesses begin right in your own homes, a dreadful truth and one I can only hope will be addressed in the long-awaited, much-debated, deeply hidden Public Option.

So where is that Public Option anyway? What does it look like? Will it include proper and compassionate end-of-life care — previously ridiculed as death panels — and not be afraid to explain why that is so important?

Clearly, we are lost in the fog of the just-now-coming phrase, when we the Public Optionees are being asked to sit and wait patiently while our essential Public Option begs, pleads and howls to be born.

Personally, I'm getting wildly impatient and stressing out over the possibility of failure. I've got the flu and I'm pretty sure it's because my immune system has been kicked and squeezed by unresolved anxiety over health care reform — specifically what that Public Option is going to look like when it's finally presented, should that happen in our lifetime.

Hope is what got us here in the first place, so I don't mind admitting that I still have great hope that the enlightened version of the Public Option will emerge.

That's the Public Option that isn't afraid to call itself wellness-based, prevention-minded, a higher quality, lower cost, integrated and evolved government run system that rewards healthy behaviors (smart eating, walking and biking, kindness and cooperation) and draws revenue from unhealthy behaviors (smoking cigarettes, driving while texting, consuming fake drinks and foods that fatten our friends and victimize our kids).

That's the Public Option that offers coupons for free or subsidized Healthy Lifestyle coaches to meet with moms and dads, kids and their caregivers on a weekly or monthly basis.

That's the Public Option that will actively support your own personal training and effort to prevent certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes and stroke through lifestyle-related therapies.

And yes, that's the Public Option that includes phone calls from government-approved body workers asking you when you'd like to stop in for your free, weekly, Public Option approved 90-minute deep tissue massage. (Ok, maybe the flu medicine is kicking in.)

I'll close with two more Public Options you might consider, guaranteed to improve your well-being no matter what Congress does:

— Opt to get your levels of vitamin D tested. Deficiencies are everywhere and causing big medical problems, even if you spend lots of time outdoors.

— Opt for forgiveness. In mind-body medicine, hang-ups from your past express themselves as energy blockages in your current body, so the sooner you can let go of bitterness and resentment, the better.

Anxiety, too. Even as I slink back to strict bed rest, I'm staying positive about the Public Option and all that it can be. Salud!

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! KEEPING THE FAITH

"Often it is the journey itself, not the destination, that is the real point of setting forth."

— Sharon Salzberg

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.com and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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