Juicing and juice cleanses have been around for years, but it seems like 2013 is going to be the year of juicing (good job juice!). Everywhere I look, there are ads online for new juice companies, my friends on Instagram take daily photos of their juice, and Pinterest is a goldmine for new recipes. Never one to miss out on a trend, I hopped on that juicing train faster than Amanda Bynes jumps on her Twitter feed.

I wanted to get all the benefits of juicing so I began with a 3-day cleanse. I don’t really think a cleanse is necessary.  I mean, we have built-in cleansers otherwise known as our livers and kidneys for that.  However, I’ve always been curious about what exactly happens to your body during a cleanse. I’ve had friends tell me they feel SO ALIVE!!! and fresh during and after a cleanse. I wanted to experience the awakening for myself.

After doing some research, I ordered a 3-day cleanse from Suja Juice. Suja did not pay me or Fit-a-licious to write this article. I chose them after hearing good things from friends and comparing their flavor selections to other cleanses that were available online.

The Suja Juice cleanse included 18 juices that I was to drink at different times throughout the three days.  I decided to cleanse during the week because I figured work would distract me from thinking about eating actual solid food.  I began my cleanse on a Monday with a green juice that the Suja people had named “Glow.” It was…okay? A little tart and a lot liquid. I’m used to eating oatmeal in the morning and it was weird not to feel the oats sticking to my ribs, but I felt great.

Once at work though, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything I wasn’t going to be eating that day. I couldn’t stop looking at the clock to see if it was time for my next juice.  The four-hour mark was sitting in front of me on a little digital clock on the bottom of my computer screen. It finally got to the point where I hid the toolbar on my computer screen so I could stop staring at it drooling like a baby waiting for her feeding time.

I was supposed to drink some sort of carrot juice for lunch but drank the chocolate one instead.  The rest of my workday dragged on as I fought an internal battle not to order take-out. After work I went to a yoga class and drank the carrot juice in the car on the way. I was nervous about taking a yoga class running on only juice, but it was fine. I didn’t feel any different, but the silence only made me focus on the leftover pasta from a date the night before sitting in my fridge that I wouldn’t be eating.  Thoughts of ziti ruled over my savasana.

When I got home, I showered, drank a juice and watched an episode of House Of Cards on Netflix (best show ever! do you watch? do you know if there’s a season 2?). It was a pretty standard evening, but I couldn’t relax.  I wanted to work out in the morning, but was nervous about working out on the cleanse.  I finally fell asleep a little bit after midnight.

I woke up with a splitting headache, but I don’t think that was from the juice. I chalked it up to the lack of sleep and anxiety. I decided to give up the cleanse right then and there. I didn’t want to spend another day stressing out about when I was going to eat, what food I wasn’t eating or what other people thought.

It’s tempting to think we can just cleanse our bodies back to health or lose a few pounds by simply sipping for a few days, but it’s not true. A healthy body doesn’t happen in three days. It might be a good start, but it’s not something that’s lasting or something that I could see being very good for mental health.

So while I might not have lasted the full three days, it wasn’t a complete waste of money because the juices did taste quite good and I decided to drink them in the morning in place of my oatmeal.  I’ve been eating a healthy, clean diet in the weeks since I tried the cleanse and I’ve never once felt as deprived as I did doing that supposed healthy cleanse.

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