21 Pounds in 21 Days (14 page)

Cut your vegetables in chunks as large as your juicer can handle right before juicing. Slicing your vegetables right when you use them keeps vital nutrients in the food rather than allowing them to escape into the air. Drink your juice immediately to guarantee that all the nutrients will be intact. Pour it into a glass container and seal the top to prevent oxidation if you are drinking the juice on the go, then store it in a refrigerator and drink it as soon as you can. It's best to drink your juice very fresh, when all the enzymes are active or alive.

Characteristics of Different Juices

Each vegetable (and fruit) contains a unique blend of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Select from the following commonly juiced vegetables to create your juice blend. You may create combinations based on flavors you enjoy most or on the health benefits you seek. In any case, be sure to include vegetables that reflect the entire spectrum of colors, focusing primarily on green vegetables.

My Favorite Juice Combinations

“Different strokes for different folks,” my grandmother would sometimes say. And depending on their tastes, people prefer different types of juice combinations. In the Martha's Vineyard Diet
Detox, we juice for nutrition more than for flavor. You may have to get used to the taste of the different vegetable juices. But if we can grow to enjoy the acidic tastes of beer and hard liquor, we can certainly swig eight ounces of something healthy if that's what we need to do to get it past our tongue. Here are some of my favorite juice combinations to treat different health conditions:

• Arthritis: bean sprout, carrot, cucumber, fennel, kale, parsnip, turnip (wheatgrass alone)
  
• Cancer: broccoli, kale, carrot, beet, beet greens
  
• Fluid retention: bean sprout, cucumber, fenugreek sprout, watercress
  
• Heart disease: spinach, broccoli, beets, garlic
  
• High cholesterol: turnips, dandelion, carrot, spinach, parsley, ginger root
  
• Impotence: kale, alfalfa sprouts, lambs quarter (wheatgrass alone)
  
• Liver problems: beets, dandelion greens, parsnips, endive, spinach
  
• Menopause: Swiss chard, watercress, bean sprouts, beet greens
  
• Prostate problems: asparagus, parsley, tomatoes, watercress
  
• Ulcers: cabbage, kale, carrot, parsnips (wheatgrass alone)
  

I like these juices because of their flavorful or refreshing taste:

• 5 carrots, 4 collard leaves, 2 parley sprigs, ¼ beet
  
• 4 spinach leaves, 4 turnip leaves, 4 kale leaves, 5 carrots, ¼ clove garlic
  
• 4 broccoli florets, ½ cucumber, 3 carrots, ¼ inch of ginger
  
• 1 cucumber, 1 beet, 3 beet leaves, 3 carrots, ¼ clove garlic
  
• 1 cup green beans, 5 leaves of spinach, 5 carrots
  

Hint…

• Juice if you're really thirsty.
  
• Juice if you need salt or are craving salt.
  
• Juice if you need energy.
  

Making Fresh Soups

Another way of obtaining maximum nutrition in minimum doses is by eating specially prepared soups. To keep things simple, feel free to make a variation of a soup you're familiar with. For instance, you can take one of your favorite winter soups and remove any white flour, white rice, sweetener, milk/cream, meat, butter, and salt from the recipe. Of course, the soup will taste differently than you are used to, but remember your focus here is to nourish yourself in a way that allows you to lose weight, not in satisfying a
culinary critic. That said, there's no need to suffer through a lousy-tasting meal. Feel free to pump up the other flavors in the soup—adding more garlic, onions, cilantro, or parsley, for instance—to satiate your taste buds. You can be creative and combine your own ingredients and seasonings. The combinations are endless. For instance, if you want an Italian-inspired soup, you may choose to combine broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, onions, yellow squash, and zucchini, topping them off with basil, oregano, parsley, and rosemary. (Depending on your body chemistry, you may or may not want to include potatoes, tomatoes, or other nightshade vegetables.) If you prefer a sweeter soup, you may want to combine carrots, onions, and sweet potatoes with a little cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla extract. You can use any herbs you like for flavor. Here are some of my favorite combinations. You don't need to worry about proportions; season to taste instead.

• Celery, collard greens, green beans, onion, and sweet potato, seasoned with cayenne pepper, cumin, curry, garlic chopped), ginger (chopped)
  
• Carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and kale, seasoned with bay leaves, Cajun seasoning (salt-free version), cilantro, garlic powder, parsley
  
• Broccoli, celery, chard, kale, onions, scallions, and spinach, seasoned with cayenne pepper, garlic, salt-free seasoning
  
• Carrots, cauliflower, green beans, onions, and spinach, seasoned with garlic and vegetable seasoning (salt-free version)
  

Note:
Carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes will make your soup sweeter, but the goal is to keep your soup as green as possible.

Making the soup is easy. Place 2 cups of cut-up vegetables in a large pot (or you can cook overnight in a crock pot). Add 4 cups of water. Cook until softened (about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on what vegetables you choose). Add herbs and spices to taste. If you feel like Italian, add basil, bay leaf, oregano, rosemary leaves, or sage. Enjoy Cajun? Add cayenne pepper, paprika, oregano,
onion, and garlic. My favorite is Indian, so I add curry, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and turmeric to a soup made with broccoli, carrots, sweet potato, and green beans. Or check out the recipes on pages 205–208. For an energy boost, add 1 teaspoon of the sea vegetables kelp or dulse, which add a wide variety of minerals. Remove the vegetables from the pot and puree in a blender. Set the broth aside to drink during the day.

P
eter (name changed), a forty-three-year-old married father of three, was proud of being a “meat and potatoes” man. “I don't do vegetables,” he informed me on the day we started working together.

“You won't eat one vegetable?” I asked.

“Never!” he answered. “I will never do vegetables.”

I wondered if maybe his parents pushed him too much as a child so he decided never to eat another veggie in life.

Unbeknownst to Peter, his unwillingness to eat green foods was taking its toll on his body. He had a beer belly and needed to lose about 50 pounds. He did not look his age at all—he had so many wrinkles I thought he was at least fifteen to twenty years older. I could tell his body was very acidic.

Unfortunately, Peter's situation is not that unusual. Most Americans do not get enough vegetables, and if it weren't for french fries, many would eat hardly any. Yet vegetables are vital to the body's well-being. They are the only food group that cleanses as well as feeds our cells. But even though the government recommends that we eat between five and nine servings of vegetables and fruits each day, the average American eats only one!

Compounding matters, when we do eat vegetables, they usually don't have enough nutrients in them—and let's not forget that they contain toxic chemicals! That's why it is important to
take nutritional supplements. Now, I'm not just talking about any old supplement—I don't mean the chemically synthetic vitamins you buy at the grocery store. I'm talking about a high-density, powdered nutritional supplement that's actually made from fruits and vegetables. These nutrient-dense products give you several days' worth of nutrition in a single eight-ounce glass—more than you could eat in one sitting. Down one drink, and you've consumed enough fruits and vegetables for the entire day. While I don't suggest that anyone use them to replace fruits and vegetables entirely, they're ideal for people like Peter—as well as everyday folks who would eat more veggies if they had the time. While you're on the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox, you will take them several times daily along with other supplements to support your body's cleanse.

Green Drinks

One of the most important high-density supplements I include in the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox is known as a “green drink,” which is usually derived from green vegetables. Before growing into the mature grains that land in our breakfast bowls and on our dinner tables, cereals like wheat, barley, and rye begin their life cycle as grasses. While they're young, tender, and grassy, these grains are particularly high in nutrition. Their nutrients are densely concentrated—much more so than in the full-grown plant. These grasses (and other greens) feed many of the biggest animals on the planet—cows, elephants, horses, oxen, and buffalo, for example. The phrases “as strong as an ox” and “as strong as a horse” originate in the power packed in these grasses, which help the body oxygenate the cells. The result? Green drinks clean your system, give you energy, and make your body more alkaline. Once you start taking them, your hair and skin will look wonderful! Because they exist in liquid form, the nutrients within them reach your cells very quickly. Many people who drink them say they experience a type of high.

Wheatgrass, in particular, gives the body a lot of get-up-and-go. You may be familiar with it already since it's served frequently
at juice bars. Wheatgrass is perhaps the most powerful cleansing, nourishing, and energizing food—it's served in tiny “shot” glasses. Even then, not everyone can handle it. It gives some people so much energy, they can't drink it after mid-afternoon or they'll lie awake well into the night. In fact, it is such a strong cleaner that some people can't tolerate it until they detoxify. If their body is very toxic, wheatgrass may cleanse their body so quickly it will cause them to projectile vomit! (This is a healing crisis).

Now, please bear with me briefly while I explain some of the science behind green grasses. They contain lots of chlorophyll, the green pigment that absorbs light energy from the sun. Chlorophyll transforms that solar energy into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule that stores energy and transports it between the cells. In photosynthesis, the process plants use to turn sunlight into food, chlorophyll plays a major role. So when you consume the grasses of these grains and other green foods, you're actually eating sunrays that have been transformed into food. No other foods provide you with more energy!

The green drink I've included in the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox is a high-density nutrient powder primarily composed of grasses like the ones mentioned above. It also contains vegetables like broccoli, greens, and kale; spirulina; and blue-green algae that is one of the most nutrient-dense plants on Earth. These grasses, vegetables, and fruits are harvested at their peak and then are dried and lightly processed into powders. This high-tech process preserves most of their vitamins, minerals, nutrients, phytochemicals, and enzymes but leaves the fiber behind. You just mix a scoop of green supplement with water, which I prefer, or juice. Most provide as much nutrition in a single eight-ounce glass as eight to ten servings of vegetables. While salads and steamed vegetables don't always fit into your purse, green drinks are road ready. You can buy packets of powder and carry them with you, scoop powder into a Ziploc bag, or pour it into your water bottle, shake it, and drink whenever you're ready!

Green drinks have been around for a long time, so the technology has improved considerably. If you tried them back in the early days, you may have been turned off by their taste, since the
first-generation drinks were composed only of grasses, vegetables, and algae. They tasted, well…very green! Fortunately, times have changed. Today, many contain apples, bananas, berries, carrots, and other sweeter fruits and vegetables. They actually taste good. Some green drinks contain only spirulina or barley. You don't want that type for the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox; you will need a broader spectrum of nutrients. Instead, choose one with as many different green grasses and vegetables in it as you can find. Ideally, the ingredients will be organic, with no added sugars, salt, or preservatives. During your detox, you'll consume a green drink at least twice a day.

I have to admit that getting Peter to consume a green drink was a challenge. (I gave up on the vegetables early on and thought I'd try stealth green drinks instead.) It took me several days to figure out how to do it, but in a few days I was able to sneak one into Peter's regimen without his knowledge. Many of the drinks taste so good I knew the trick was to disguise the drink's color so that it didn't look green. I used one of the old-style plastic water bottles with an opaque plastic top and a straw.

“Do you know what you drank?” I asked him. “Five servings of fruits and vegetables!”

Peter couldn't believe it. As he continued with the program, not only did he detox and shed 21 pounds, he lost years off his face (www.mvdietdetox.com).

Antioxidant Berry Drinks

Even though people seem to enjoy the flavor of fruits a lot more than they like veggies, Americans don't eat enough of them. And when we do eat fruit, we typically consume the usual apple, orange, or banana, rather than the variety our body truly needs. I tell my clients that one trick I use that helps me consume more fruits is squeezing fresh lemon or lime juice into my water. On hot summer days when I'm not detoxing, I enjoy a salad containing mangos, papaya, pineapple, and watermelon. But even though I eat enough fruit, I know it no longer packs the potency that it should. In 1955, one orange contained approximately 50 mg of
vitamin C; today, it only contains about 5 mg. The same is true with peaches, another of my favorites. As much as I love them, I can't eat the twenty-five I'd now have to eat to obtain a full day's supply of vitamin C.

So since an apple a day no longer keeps the doctor away, it's important to take an antioxidant supplement. Like green drinks, these supplements provide high doses of phytonutrients, in particular, disease-fighting antioxidants, which are found mostly in fruits, particularly berries. Many fruits—blueberries, pomegranates, grapes, blackberries, prunes (dried plums), and raspberries among them—are “superfoods,” foods that scientists have discovered pack tremendous amounts of antioxidants and, therefore, do more than their share of nourishing, healing, and preventing. Antioxidant drinks are powerful and particularly helpful for people whose bodies and joints are inflamed and those who are full of toxins. Premenopausal women find that they help their bodies retain less fluid.

While you're on the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox, you'll consume one antioxidant berry drink daily. Each glass provides the nutritional equivalent of six to eight servings of fruit, mostly berries. Choose one containing as many different kinds of berries in it as possible. I particularly like the exotic taste of those made with acai berry, wolfberry, goji berry, and noni. Your antioxidant supplement should also have a high oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) value. ORAC measures the potency of the antioxidants in the drink. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that we get 7,000 ORAC units daily, the equivalent of five to ten fruits and vegetables. Your antioxidant berry drink should also contain no added sugar, salt, or preservatives. Your green drinks should have a variety of berries, not just one kind (www.mvdietdetox.com).

Digestive Enzymes

When we eat the standard American diet, we end up enzyme deficient. When we're short on digestive enzymes—either because there are inadequate amounts in our food or because our body
no longer produces enough of its own—after we eat we feel it in the form of abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, gas, nausea, and even vomiting. Sometimes we experience these and other symptoms—say, itching or a rash—because we have food allergies we're unaware of, allergies that enzymes naturally help treat. Thank goodness, we can buy digestive enzymes at the health-food store that are similar to the ones the body manufactures in our stomach. By taking supplements containing protease, amylase, lipase, and cellulase, we can assist and speed up digestion and minimize the effects of food allergens. I like to think of these enzymes as being a lot like the old video game character “Pac Man” since they engulf and “eat” foreign substances as they clean the digestive tract. After taking them you will experience less bloating almost immediately. You'll also have more energy after your meals. During the Diet Detox, you will take digestive enzymes before drinking your vegetable juice and soup. When your detox is over, I suggest staying on them since our food supply lacks them (www.mvdietdetox.com).

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera
is a greenish-grey plant with sharp, spiky, succulent leaves. Though native to Africa, the plant is hardy and its medicinal uses so popular that it is now found around the world. Most Americans are aware of aloe's anti-inflammatory effect and use it to treat minor cuts, burns, and skin rashes. I used to keep several plants on my kitchen windowsill for precisely that purpose. Aloe also moisturizes, making it a popular ingredient in beauty products for hair and skin. While you're on the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox, you will take aloe vera as a nutritional supplement. Taken internally, aloe supplies antiaging antioxidants; helps to restore pH balance and repair cellular health; has a mild laxative effect, making it easier to move your bowels; and improves colon health. In fact, research suggests it is very therapeutic in chronic colon conditions like colitis (www.mvdietdetox.com).

Herbal Cleansing Formula

Herbs work in a synergistic way to encourage organs to flush harmful toxins and elements out of the body. They flush the elimination organs, such as the kidney, liver, and colon, by cleansing their insides. Some herbs, such as cayenne pepper and ginger, stimulate the body, making you feel increased energy; others have a cleansing effect. In combination, the herbs cleanse, repair, or build specific organs, improving the digestive system. For example, herbs can help clear mucus off the colon walls, repair inflammation in the colon, clean out the kidneys to help them keep our system more alkaline, and normalize liver function to keep our hormones balanced. In essence, herbs can increase our metabolic rate and improve our overall health. These are some of the most effective: dandelion root, alfalfa leaf, black cohosh, burdock root, cascara sagrada, psyllium seed husk, beet fiber, oat bran, apple pectin, rice fiber, fennel seed, and slippery elm bark.

Protein Drink

If you are among the few detoxers who want to cleanse their body without losing weight, you should consume one or two protein drinks daily. Look for a brand made from soy, eggs, and/or whey (the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained), that contains ingredients you're not allergic to, all nine essential amino acids, and more protein than carbohydrates. While you're on your detox, mix your drink with water or soy, rice, or almond milk rather than cow's milk, depending on the product directions. For additional flavor, add natural extracts like vanilla, cinnamon, almond, or banana (www.mvdietdetox.com).