“Juice cleanse? What, you’re crazy!” and “You’re drinking that? And actually liking it?” and “I thought people only did cleanses to lose weight. Why do you think you need to lose weight?”

Ha Ha. Yep. Those were the responses from my co-workers a couple of weeks ago. They had no idea how good those green juices were that I was drinking.

See, I had agreed to try a 3-day juice cleanse with the local sambaFRESH juice company, along with a few other local bloggers! I LOVE juice. Not the super sugary kind with all kinds of additives in the grocery. But, rather the cold-pressed kind, made of purely healthy ingredients.

I had attemped a 1-day cleanse before and had always been curious what I would feel like after a longer cleanse. Although I know many people have intentions of losing weight with a cleanse, that was not my goal. I went in with the mindset of juicing to improve my skin, energy levels, and overall health. Also, I wanted to curb my oh-so-sweet tooth cravings that surface every now and then 🙂 To be honest, I needed a mind/body/health re-set.

I typically enjoy juice as a supplement to meals, for a boost of energy, as a snack, or just to get a quick dose of “healthy” in my body if I’m particularly feeling gross for the day. I like to eat and I like to eat frequently. So, I was naturally a bit nervous about consuming nothing but juice, water, and herbal tea for 3 days. Yikes!

I expressed my anticipated anxieties and the sambaFRESH team explained that if I was really, really hungry or just needing to chew something (this happened in my last cleanse-it’s human nature!), I could have a raw salad with mainly vegetables or raw seeds and preferably without fruit. With this option laid out as a back-up, I felt pretty good going into this cleanse. Nervous but confident that if I was freaking out… I had options.

Okay, Day One. A Tuesday. Oh boy, here we go. I started the day with a GLO juice (amazing) at 8 AM… brought 3 juices in my bag to work. Downed water all morning. Wasn’t hungry at all until my regular lunch time, 11:30. I had my next juice: BOCA. I remember this juice tasted sooo good at that time. I wasn’t hungry again until 3:00, when I had juice #3, Amazonic. I was honestly surprised at how I wasn’t hungry at all. But, I also know that I eat very lightly at work. I down my juice #4 – Rio – on the way home in my car, a bit nervous of arriving home at a house full of food. My energy levels were plummeting and my body, I swear, could sense it was about to go home and eat a large dinner, per usual. So, I had to bust out Proteina Plus (all of the protein in this really helps plus it’s an absolutely delicious juice) and make it last throughout my regular dinner hour. Mission accomplished. I had one more juice to last until bedtime – 3 more hours essentially. Keep in mind, I was consuming a ton of water and even tried herbal tea during this time. The last juice, before bed, was Detox. I totally made it through the first day. I don’t know how I did it. Honestly, but I was proud.

Day Two. Wednesday. Ugh. Headache central upon waking up. I have some herbal tea, consume my GLO juice as soon as I hit the kitchen, having a feeling day 2 was going to be a bit harder than the first day. I pace myself at work, consuming 3 juices total. I know I’m in trouble when I get home because I’m actually pretty hungry and also dyiiiing to chew something. So, I resort back to my “options” aka having some raw food. I make a large spinach salad with sunflower seeds and raw broccoli. I love my life. It tastes soooo good. My “dessert” is a Proteina Plus, which honestly could be a dessert because it’s that awesome by the way. I have my last juice before bed. I don’t feel bad about modifying my cleanse, because hey, that salad was pretty stinkin’ healthy. I crash into bed.

Day Three. Thursday. Ah, I had almost made it. Two cups of herbal tea because my headache is still there. Man, this detox stuff is for real! Once again, I make it through the morning and my workday with 4 juices and feeling strong and light on my feet. I have no idea if I lost weight but I’m pretty sure I did. I get home, stiiiill needing something to chew (this instinct is strong I’m telling you), so I make another large spinach salad with sunflower seeds, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Lemon juice as the dressing. Proteina Plus and Rio rounded up the night. I was so excited to go to bed because I knew tomorrow I could eat whatever I wanted but I also felt energized. My body was really detoxing. Such an amazing feeling.

Friday. Party time! No, but really, I was happy to get back to my morning cup of coffee but could only drink half of it because it tasted so strong to me. I had spinach salad with feta cheese, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, avocado, and lemon juice dressing with grilled chicken for lunch. That night, I went out for dinner with friends and had a sensible meal although I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. I felt good. And refreshed. And my skin was glowing, I swear. And I felt healthy, for the first time in months. A juice cleanse is an extremely personal journey and people do it for all kinds of reasons. Although mine was modified, I still felt accomplished, confident, and completely re-set. It through me out of my habits and into another state of mind. For that, I am grateful and am happy with how the end result of the sambaFRESH juice cleanse!

Now, about sambaFRESH. All of their juices are sooo delicious! If you haven’t tried them, please do (and let me know what you think) because they’re amazing. The only ones I’m not crazy about are D2 and Detox 3 because I’m not a fan of spiciness and there is definitely some habanero in these babies. Proteina Plus (soaked raw cashews, filtered H2O, cinnamon, maca, local raw honey) and GLO (grapefruit, lemon and orange) are my absolute sambaFRESH favorites.

You can read more about how to do a juice cleanse with sambaFRESH here.

A special thanks to Kitt and the sambaFRESH team for being so inspiring!