Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox -Review
21 Pounds in 21 Days
Roni DeLuz is a registered nurse and naturopathic doctor who founded the Martha's Vineyard Holistic Retreat, a tony spa in a tony inn on tony Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Among the treatments available at DeLuz's Retreat are colonic therapies (she is a colonic therapist), which formed the basis for a plan she created for her clients called the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox. The plan is intended to be a whole body cleanse - ridding toxins, increasing energy, lowering blood pressure and - and this is the real reason it's become so popular - losing 21 pounds in 21 days. The plan hit the national radar when radio-man Howard Stern's on-air sidekick Robin Quivers spoke publicly about her stint at the Martha's Vineyard Retreat, and the significant weight loss and improved health she achieved from the experience. The detox's basic principles are "rest, reduce and rebuild." Who wouldn't want to take a second look at that?
The problem is, upon closer inspection you'll learn that the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox is NOT EASY to see through. Additionally, it's quite expensive, but more on that later. So what is it? First off, you have three choices for how long you'd like to commit - a two day weekend plan, a seven day "tune-up" or the full 21 day (and 21 pounds) detox. You will not eat solid food. At all. In fact, you are prohibited from CHEWING. With that in mind, you'll proceed by drinking liquids every two hours. Your schedule (which is the same for all three cleanse durations) is breakfast of an antioxidant berry drink, an herbal cleansing formula drink, a cup of hot herbal tea and eight ounces of distilled water. 2 hours later you're allowed a "snack" of eight ounces of water and eight ounces of iced or hot herbal tea. Lunch is either one cup of fresh vegetable juice (real juice from a juicer, not a bottle) or a green drink (powder packets MVDD supplies), another eight ounces of water, another herbal cleansing formula drink and a digestive enzyme capsule. 2 hours after lunch, you get another "snack" - water or tea like you had in the morning. A couple hours after your afternoon "snack", you knock back another antioxidant berry drink. And when dinner finally arrives, it consists of one cup of homemade cleansing soup, one cup of broth, one cup of herbal tea, another herbal cleansing formula drink, 8 ounces of water and another digestive enzyme capsule. For a nightcap you can have eight ounces of water or tea, and you're to take an aloe vera supplement before bed. Interspersed are a whole host of vitamins and such you need to take to keep your nutrients in balance. One can only wonder that if consuming that much liquid in a day may make you feel as though you'll float out to sea.
DeLuz also recommends colonics, coffee enemas, liver flushes, kidney cleanses, body wraps, detoxifying baths and lymphatic massages during your cleanse to more effectively eliminate toxins. Exercise is a part of the plan, but note that it is very low intensity, low impact and low stress - walking one mile per day, yoga or jumping on a trampoline for 20 minutes - and this is in all likelihood because you will be too weak from starvation to do much else. Note that you may also experience side effects like acne, rashes, nausea, headaches, constipation, diarrhea, runny nose, ear problems or body aches as your body detoxifies.
Once your cleanse is over and it's time to reenter the real world, you must tread carefully, lest your weight balloon again. DeLuz recommends initially sticking with your antioxidant berry drinks and green drinks, and incorporating them into a diet of protein shakes, vegetables, soy milk, small portions of salmon and nonfat yogurt.
I am sure that juice fasting/detoxifying like this will make you feel remarkably lighter and cleaner - wonderful things - during the process. That is - when you are not sleeping. Which I suspect is what you'd want to be doing most of the time to escape the torturous boredom, hunger and possible weird side effects of this routine. Though sleeping may be what you will be doing most of the time anyways due to the fatigue from starvation. Will you lose weight? Of course. You're not eating solid food, and what you are consuming is incredibly low calorie. Will you keep the weight off? That is up to you - and how you live your life with real food in it.
DeLuz recommends you undertake the 21 day detox once a year, a seven day cleanup each calendar season, and a weekend detox every week. Note that scientific and medical experts do not approve of these kinds of fasting/detoxification plans for healthy weight management.
As we noted above, even if you can't make it to DeLuz's Holistic Retreat you'll find that the at-home plan is a pricey venture. A Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox package is available online for around $200. But this only includes the antioxidants and green drinks, so the enzyme supplements, teas, colonics, enemas, body wraps etc. are at additional cost. You'll also need your own juicing machine, and a month's supply of organic fruits, vegetables and distilled water. Good luck.