After introductions, Higgins (who is also a professional model and author of a forthcoming meal planning book) gathers the glitterati into the library and has everyone tell his or her story. Now, the experience is more like an infomercial, with testimonials of weight lost and health regained. But these fit, attractive people didn’t get this way through diet pills, liposuction, or the latest exercise device. Jaynie Higgins has simply shown them how to take care of themselves, through clean eating, vigorous workouts, and an “attitude of gratitude.”
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There’s Carmen Doe, cancer survivor, wife of East Millinocket’s retired chief of police, and owner of a small business. While already fit when she started weight training with Higgins (“this woman has no body fat”), she depends on Higgins’ nutritional counseling to help keep her cancer-free. There’s Linda Lavey. Lavey had stopped taking Higgins’ classes a few years ago, but recently started again when her husband blurted out that she was “ getting fat.” Now she’s back to what her fitness mentor calls “clean eating”—essentially high nutrition and fiber, low sugar, and complex carbs.
There’s also Russ, Rachel, Barbara, Joann, Sharon, Marsha, Erica, Harold, Amanda, and Debbie—all with their own impressive testimonies. Higgins’ way of doing things has changed their lives.
Like the beautiful people in the room, the spread on the table is full of good health and substance. Higgins’ punch, garnished with slivered almonds, tastes like a perfectly mixed cocktail. It’s actually three different herbal teas, sweetened with Splenda. “This punch is loaded with antioxidants,” Higgins says. The fruit salad—called Apple Bliss Bowl—is mixed with yogurt and pineapple juice, with just a bit of reduced fat mayonnaise for flavor. The salmon, spiked up with a homemade Cajun marinade, is baked in a pan of water to keep it moist. And the dessert has all the comfort of warm bread pudding, yet it’s made with shredded wheat.
While these selections honestly look and taste as decadent as their fat- and sugar-filled cousins, Higgins’ recipes are all essentially “100% clean foods. No added fat or sugar.” The “clean food” terminology is one
known to diabetics. Jaynie Higgins has been an insulin-dependent diabetic for 18 years. “I was down to 98 pounds . . . one day I collapsed.”
Higgins was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which means, essentially, that “my pancreas doesn’t produce insulin.” So she has to give her body that insulin. Four times per day. “Whenever I’m tempted to feel sorry
for myself,” she says as she gives herself an insulin shot, “I remember that this”—she pulls out the needle—“is keeping me alive.”
Her positive attitude has also translated into her business life. A tireless entrepreneur, Higgins has had six or seven businesses over the years, from mail order flowers to a boarding home. After she was diagnosed with diabetes, “I took every course I could get my hands on.” She turned her personal quest for health into her current businesses: teaching fitness classes, giving nutritional counseling, fitness modeling, and, most recently, writing a meal planning book for diabetics. The ambitious project, over five years in the making,
will be published by McGraw Hill in 2007. “I’m very excited about the book. It’s being endorsed by the American Diabetes Association. That’s huge.”
Higgins’ book, she says, contains 18 years’ worth of study, insights, and tricks she’s learned to keep herself healthy and satiated. “I’m a volume eater. I can eat most men under the table. Believe me, you will not be hungry on my meal plan.”
Neither is Higgins’ mother, Joann Hanington. Over the years, Hanington saw her daughter regain her health and help many others become fit and healthy. But she wasn’t ready to listen—until she herself had a chronic health problem, fibromyalgia. Now “mom,” too, is a convert. “I finally came to Jaynie’s class, and started listening.”
Hanington, who is in her 70s, lost 16 pounds, is now pain-free, and keeps up with her fellow class members, some of whom are decades younger. She elaborates between bites of her daughter’s Friendship Stew. “I
don’t diet. I’m not on a diet. I’ve just learned how to eat well. It’s amazing how well I feel.”
Friendship Stew:
Serves 14 (2-cup servings)
1 package A-1 Soup Mix dried beans
1 large onion, chopped fine
3 celery stocks, chopped fine
1–3 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 heaping Tbs. vegetable Better than Boullion
2 l/2 quarts water
1 small can tomato paste
1 large can diced tomatoes with green chili pepper
1 jar of Healthy Choice traditional tomato sauce
Pinch of dill weed
Black pepper generously
Soak beans overnight. Drain. Add to a large crock pot. Bring 2 1/2 quarts of water to a boil; add to crock pot along with rest of ingredients. Simmer on low for 3 to 4 hours or until done. Optional add-ins: 1/2 cup of precooked long grain brown rice or whole grain pasta. (Add to finished soup and warm.) Other spices, such as cayenne pepper, Italian or Mexican seasonings, can be added to taste. Garnish with cheese, chopped scallions, and sweet fresh peppers.
