Smoothie King Helps You Take Charge of Your Health in 2011 With Three Simple Steps

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Experts predict healthcare cost to rise as much as 9 percent in 2011, and more of that cost will fall on consumers. Now more than ever, consumers should take control of their health in order to lower personal healthcare costs.  

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110110/DA26823)

Regardless of whether you are trying to trim down, build up or improve your health, Smoothie King (www.smoothieking.com) suggests three simple steps to a healthy lifestyle that everyone can follow – eat healthy, build nutrients into your diet and exercise daily.  

Eat Healthy

A few smart strategies to ensure healthy eating can help even the busiest of individuals.  A minimum of three meals a day – with 5 being ideal – is required to jump start your metabolism. Eating meals that are high in protein will help to naturally curb sweet cravings, increase lean muscle mass and promote weight loss.

Skipping meals can actually slow down your body's rate of fat burning, and starving yourself can slow the rate at which you burn calories. What's more, some of the weight loss from fasting may be lean muscle mass, not body fat.

Eating on the go can be particularly challenging. Most fast-food options lack the nutrition your body craves, and are heavy on calories and fat grams. Smoothie King, however, has about 100 smoothies formulated to help you trim down, stay healthy, build muscle, get energy or snack right. These are perfect meal replacements or mid-morning and afternoon snacks that help you work in healthier meals during the day. If you want to trim down, try Smoothie King's Angel Food or Muscle Punch smoothies. For building muscle, the Gladiator and The Hulk Strawberry are great choices.

Build Nutrients into Your Diet

Nourishing your body with the correct nutrients can speed up fat loss, while preserving energy-efficient muscle.  Improve your diet with easy to take vitamins and supplements such as Whole-Nutrition Total Body Multis for Men and Women from Smoothie King.  These multivitamins contain more than 70 vitamins and minerals, enzymes, herbs, nutrients and amino acids. You can also load up a smoothie with enhancers such as multi-vitamin, antioxidant or fiber blend if you don't like taking pills.  

Exercise Daily

Regular exercise can also help with fat loss. It also reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes; improves flexibility, joint stability and range of movement; protects bones; improves mood and memory and reduce stress.

Even 10 minutes a day can be effective in meeting weight loss goals and maintaining a healthy body.  Exercise doesn't have to be rigorous to be effective. Walking is a great form of exercise.  Other simple and effective exercises you can do whenever or wherever include:

• Stand about an arm's length from a desk, table or counter and push in and out to strengthen your arms and shoulders.
• Stand with your feet parallel and your knees relaxed. Contract the muscles around your belly button, and then elevate your upper torso and release.
• Jog in place while watching TV. Lift your knees and pump your arms to get your heart rate up.

Remember to consult your physician before beginning any exercise or nutritional program.

If you need a jump start to your weight loss program, there are several safe, natural, over-the-counter weight-loss products. For example, Smoothie King's Two-Week Weight Loss Acai Berry Cleanse & Flush has an herbal-based formula to purify and flush toxins from your system while providing the antioxidant protection of fruits, green tea and other natural ingredients to produce energy and fat oxidation. For optimum weight loss combine the company's Super Boost Green Tea Fat Burning supplement, which boosts metabolism and burns calories, with a low calorie diet and exercise plan. Learn more at www.smoothieking.com or visit a store near you.

About Smoothie King Franchises, Inc.

Smoothie King is a privately held, New Orleans-area-based franchise company and the premier Smoothie Bar and Nutritional Lifestyle Center in the industry. Smoothie King offers guests the original nutritional fresh-blended smoothie and healthy retail products, including sports beverages, energy bars, healthy snacks, vitamin supplements, herbs, minerals and other sports nutrition products. Smoothie King opened its first store in 1973 and started as the first franchised smoothie bar/health food store in the United States in 1989, and currently has more than 600 units operating in 32 states, the Republic of Korea and the Caymans. Additional outlets will soon be opening in Japan, Egypt and Turkey. In 2010, Smoothie King was ranked no. 1 by Entrepreneur magazine in the juice bar category for the 18th time and number 70 overall on the 2011 Franchise 500 list. Visit www.smoothieking.com, on Facebook www.facebook.com/SmoothieKing, and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/smoothieking.

SOURCE Smoothie King