Small Businesses, Hospitals Strive to Serve Fitness Market in Jonesboro

Rose Hankins was a nurse who wanted to own her own business. Her friend Ashleigh Oleson was employed in the physical therapy field and wanted to lose weight and change her lifestyle.  The two women took a chance this month and opened Jonesboro Total Health, one of several new wellness businesses that have cropped up in Jonesboro in recent years. Jonesboro Total Health is dedicated to providing healthy food choices and exercise programs. As a nurse, Hankins said, "I got tired of working with people who didn’t want to help themselves ... The people we work with now want to improve their health and their lives. We try to make bad food fun." The new business owners have ambitions to open Total Health stores in Little Rock, Rogers and southern Missouri in the coming years.  Instead of buying a meal through a traditional drive-through at a fast-food restaurant, Total Health customers can get a quick breakfast, lunch or dinner that is healthy, Hankins said. The meals cost roughly the same as fast-food choices, she said.  "People are shocked by what we’re able to make," Oleson said.  There are health food stores in Memphis and other large cities that make meals, but those businesses primarily cater to bodybuilders and other athletes. Hankins and Oleson wanted to design food and an exercise plans that can help anyone.  Diet is a key to losing weight and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Novices often think they can join a gym and work out to get healt...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news