What a Suja Juice 3-Day Cleanse Did for Me

It’s been a little over 2 months now since I embarked on my first-ever juice cleanse. I chose the 3-day option from Suja Juice after doing tons of research on taste and cost. And yes, I’ll admit, I spent a lot of time googling “juice cleanse weight loss” during my research process too! Who doesn’t?! I think a lot of us go into juice cleanses hoping to lose a few pounds and hoping we’re disciplined enough to keep it off. I tried to live a somewhat healthy life prior to my cleanse, doing yoga every day and eating a lot of chia seeds and making mostly good choices. But, I still had frozen pizzas for lunch on lazy days and taco shop fare once a week, and I was definitely a sugar fiend. I read a lot of blogs from people saying their sugar cravings had been wiped away by a juice cleanse, but that seemed a bit too good to be true for me. Nonetheless, I ordered my juices and set off on my cleansing journey.

My first Suja juice on morning one (Glow) was a pleasant surprise. It was very green in color and filled with veggies so I expected the worst, but the fruit it contained luckily won me over. “Yay, I can do this!” I thought as I sipped away. The juices only got better throughout the day with the exception of Purify, which contained beets, I’m not a beet fan in any way shape or form! I got it down though, it was still easy to drink despite my dislike for beets. Fuel was my absolute favorite right away and still is, so much so that I’ll be substituting it for Purify when I do this cleanse again. I managed to fit in a brief 20-minute yoga session on day 1 and was amazed at how good I felt at the end of the day. My energy level was good, despite my sudden lack of caffeine, and I just felt clean and healthy. I woke up feeling great on day 2 and wasn’t even hungry in the morning (one of many surprises during this cleanse!) I did yoga again and felt even more energy than I did the first day, even despite the fact that my baby was up crying half the night. The only downfalls I had noticed at this point were that I had to pee every 5 minutes (thanks in part to the bottle of water I drank after every single juice), and my skin and hair were mega oily! Eew!

Day 3 began with me feeling a bit more sluggish, I couldn’t even manage to get in a 20-minute yoga session like I try to do most days. I just felt blah. But, there was a light at the end of the tunnel! One more day and I could eat food again! It was a bit harder to drink some of the juices today, but I got them all down eventually and looked forward to my final weigh-in and being able to chew on something again. I went shopping for eggs to boil for breakfast, more juices to have as meal replacements, hummus and carrots and salad ingredients for lunch and fish and veggies for dinner. The strange thing was, this all looked really amazingly delicious to me as I shopped. I never once was tempted to throw chocolate ice cream or frozen pizza into my cart. I wanted to buy lettuce and veggies and fruit and all of this healthy awesomeness in the produce section. Who am I? Where did the former me go?

When it was all said and done, I had lost 5 pounds. I was a little bummed, I had hoped I would lose more, but it was a start! The more important loss was my cravings! Those bloggers were telling the truth! I figured cravings for all things unhealthy would return after a few days, but I’m here to tell you that it has literally taken months for me to really start craving “bad” things again. Just the other night I had my first greasy Mexican taco shop craving, and living in San Diego, that’s an amazing feat. That’s not to say I haven’t eaten bad things, I just really haven’t felt the need to, and I haven’t even enjoyed them as much as I used to. I’m still not craving sugar much and have pretty much cut out dessert entirely. I think now that the cravings are peeking their heads out, it’s time for another Suja cleanse! I want to add though, that I have in fact kept the weight off, this morning I weighed 0.4 pounds over where I was on the morning after my cleanse ended. I don’t feel like I’ve had to work at keeping it off, I still drink wine every night and am not by any means a perfectly healthy eater, but I just haven’t wanted to eat the same way I used to eat. I gladly eat salads with local avocado, olive oil and balsamic every day for lunch, I enjoy having juices or Mamma Chia drinks for breakfast, and I look forward to the most basic protein and veggie dinners. My 3-day Suja juice cleanse made me a healthier person, and for that, it was entirely worth it. 

If you struggle with cravings and have the desire to live a healthier lifestyle, I would highly recommend giving a juice cleanse a try. I don’t think it matters entirely what brand you chose, or whether you make them yourself at home with a good juicer, just stick with it and know that it will change the way you eat. Sure, the cravings may come back after a couple months like mine are starting to, but I’m able to recognize it and am going to put a stop to it by cleansing again! I think I might even try a 5-day cleanse this time around! I’m thinking about trying a new cleanse every quarter, so if any juice companies have a great product and want a detailed review and potentially a lot of referrals, let me know! 🙂

**Update** Find out about my second round of Suja Juice cleansing in a separate blog post HERE.