The Suja Juice Solution

INTRODUCTION

JUICE IS
a LIFE
CHANGER

Juice can change your life. I know this is true, because it absolutely saved mine.

Hi, my name is Annie Lawless. I'm 27 years old and I'm one of the happiest, most energetic, and healthiest people I know!! Yep, double exclamation marks. I'm a certified holistic health and wellness coach, nutritional counselor, avid yogini, and the co-founder of Suja Juice, currently the fastest-growing cold-pressed-beverage company in the United States. My life is on the super-fast track forward and if my enthusiasm sounds excessive or even a tad bit inflated, forgive me, but I'm just so psyched (or totally juiced, as we say in the biz) to feel and look as good as I do today—because not so long ago, I didn't look or feel so hot.

Let me explain. As a young girl, I suffered from really awful eczema, allergies, chronic ear infections, and asthma. If you're not familiar with eczema, it's a pretty unsightly rash where the skin becomes inflamed and irritated. And just my not-so-good luck, my eczema wasn't something that flared up occasionally. It appeared daily and faithfully throughout my childhood. I remember way too many slumber parties where I'd have to sneak away to apply gloppy steroid creams to my itchy skin. My skin condition was such a part of my everyday life, I carried tubes of anti-itch cream on me at all times, so that I was armed in the event of attack. I made a habit of wearing long-sleeved shirts and tights or leggings under my school uniform to hide the deep scratches on my arms and legs. Yeah, it was gross and embarrassing, and that was just the eczema.

I was also allergic to everything, especially outdoors, where I couldn't last five minutes without having some sort of major reaction. I was constantly sneezing, coughing, or sniffling, and after the steroid cream, Kleenex was my next best friend. Seriously, I was a mess.

Throughout my youth, Mom took me to the pediatrician's office over and over again, but the only solution seemed to be more steroid creams, inhalers, or antihistamines. While medicine often helped initially, my faucet nose and scratchy skin always returned with a vengeance. By my preteen years, I was so used to feeling and looking beat-up, I accepted that this was my "normal." It's how I'd always look and feel, and I'd probably be on medications for the rest of my life.

And then one day I went to a new doctor who suggested that my watery eyes, runny nose, and skin rash may actually be an indicator of an autoimmune disease. After several tests, I finally learned that I suffer from lactose intolerance and celiac disease, an immune response to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Today there's a growing awareness about this condition, but at the time gluten intolerance was not a term as commonplace as it is now, so I recall thinking I must be seriously ill. Am I going to die? My doctor explained that my body was suffering from a severe inflammatory response to dairy and gluten. These substances were acting as foreign invaders in my digestive system that my body couldn't easily defend itself against. In an effort to protect itself, she explained, my body was attacking itself. I had to agree—I had the war wounds to prove it.

To begin the healing process, I was instructed to remove all gluten and dairy from my diet for one week. This meant giving up many of my favorite foods—boxed cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, pasta, and bagels. What was I going to eat? I thought, Yep, I'm going to die, but the opposite happened—for the first time I felt like I was actually living. Within seven days of removing gluten and dairy from my diet, the eczema, allergies, and asthma I'd suffered from for my entire life disappeared without a trace. No kidding—I'd never known a life without these nasty conditions, and suddenly they were gone.

I was liberated. After so many years of suffering, I felt like I'd been handed the keys to unlock my highest health potential. I finally understood the direct and powerful correlation between what I put into my body and how I look and feel. For the majority of my life I'd been unknowingly eating foods that were highly irritating to my body, and now I had the knowledge, power, and control to remove them, one by one, and feel and look crazy-good.

My fascination with nutrition was ignited and from that day forward, I embarked on a personal health quest that changed the course of my life. Eventually, I would become a certified health coach, holistic health practitioner, and the co-founder of Suja Juice, but before all that I simply became an overnight health nerd, poring over books on digestion, metabolism, and the properties of natural foods. Truly, I was the only teenager reading Your Friendly Gut Guide over summer vacation. Like I said—an A-class nerd. But I didn't care because the more I learned about the basic principles of nutrition and put them into practice in my own life, the better I felt. Based on my research, I began to develop a new diet and lifestyle for myself where I consciously chose to remove, or "crowd out," not-so-healthy foods and eat only those foods that would rejuvenate my body, rather than slow it down. And that's when juice came into play.

Because I'd spent my entire childhood unintentionally eating foods that aggravated my system, my digestive tract was in major disrepair. The microvilli in my intestinal lining—the finger-like projections on the surface of the intestinal cells that increase the surface area available for absorbing nutrients—were damaged. My body could no longer properly ingest the vital nutrients I needed for optimal health. Even though I'd severely altered my diet by removing gluten and dairy and was consuming fresh fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and lean meats in abundance, I was still severely vitamin- and nutrient-deficient.

Eager to change my body and open to whatever method would get me there, I began drinking fresh, organic, nutrient-dense juice to replenish my body with the concentrated nutrition I was lacking. What I soon came to understand was how highly efficient juice could be for flooding the body with vital nutrients, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals, and antioxidants that are easily absorbed into your system.

Because juice contains very little fiber, drinking it requires very little digestive labor. This is a good thing! Did you know that digestion is the hardest job your body does? Juice gives your digestive tract a break from the significant energy expenditure required to separate juice from the fiber of whole fruits and vegetables. When you drink pure juice, your body quickly and easily absorbs all of the nutrition from the food because there's no fiber in the way. Fiber, as masterful as it is at regulating and cleaning your digestive tract, can interfere with your body's ability to absorb valuable nutrition.

A medium carrot, for example, has 203 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin A. That's a mega dose! However, that carrot may also contain up to 3 or 4 grams of fiber that cannot be digested by your body. So when you eat that carrot, your body will eliminate much of the indigestible fiber before it has had a chance to absorb and utilize the valuable vitamin A locked inside.

By drinking your fruits and vegetables, you can easily pack 2 or 3 pounds of nutrient-dense natural produce into one 12-ounce glass of juice. That's a lot of digestive enzymes, detoxifying chlorophyll, and concentrated green nutrition that the body can absorb and benefit from without stressing the digestive tract.

I'm the first to admit that I'm kind of an extreme case, but the reality is that most of us—yourself included—could use a bit of help when it comes to getting our digestion back on track, revving up our metabolism, and boosting our nutrition. Over the course of your lifetime, you've likely indulged from time to time in heavily processed, high-in-added-sugars, and not-so-healthy foods. You're human, after all, and a package of Oreos or a basket of chips can be hard for even the most disciplined to resist. You may have also tried to counteract, or reverse, the occasional indulgence by following any number of restrictive diets and weight-loss plans. And unless you live on a remote island or in the far reaches of the planet, you've almost certainly been exposed to environmental pollutants.

All of these factors, individually and collectively, can negatively affect your digestive tract, slow down your metabolism, and create nutrient deficiencies that may alter your overall health and wellness. Even if you're someone who's always eaten healthy, and never experienced any tummy issues that you're aware of, your digestive system has likely still been put through a lot. Again, this is because digestion uses the most energy of all the bodily processes. When you think about how many times per day you eat, and how many months and years you've been feeding yourself, you can begin to understand how much digestive labor that is. Your body has been working overtime.

In order to look and feel your best, at some point or another you need to give your digestive system a much-needed break. Giving your digestive system a rest from heavy foods, irritants, and chemicals and replacing them with simple, whole foods and nutrient-, mineral-, and antioxidant-dense juice that can be absorbed into your system with little digestive labor is extremely beneficial—no matter who you are. And once you've given your digestion a chance to flush out the junk, rest, and repair, it can work harder for you than ever.

BABY, IT'S TIME
TO SHINE!

If in 7 days of modifying my diet, I felt like a brand-new version of myself, just think how you'll feel after losing a few bad habits and adding high-powered juice and healthier foods to yours. Freakin' A-mazing is the answer. Think about it—by this time next week, you, too, can be the you that you've always wanted to be when you start a new job or run into your ex on the street. It's you when you're killing it! I mean, who doesn't want that, right?

The health benefits of following the Suja Juice Solution may include:

The health benefits of the Suja Juice Solution can be extensive and the program is based on the simple diet and lifestyle approach I began to create for myself so many years ago to help heal my digestive sensitivities to gluten and dairy. It's evolved, since then, into an accessible program that can benefit anyone, whoever you are. The program you're about to begin hasn't only worked wonders for me. In fact, the Suja Juice Solution has been inspired by juice devotees of all ages, shapes, sizes, and walks of life, including many in the Suja family who have their own transformative 7-day stories (you'll hear from many of them in the pages ahead), and who are equally as passionate and as committed to helping people improve their health and nutrition, one juice at a time.

Take Jeff Church, CEO and co-founder of Suja Juice. His life did a complete 180 once he integrated juice into his life…

Hi, I'm Jeff and I grew up in the Midwest where meals traditionally consist of meat, potatoes, and more meat. When I was first approached by a business colleague and good friend, James Brennan, to grow distribution of a line of green juices that he believed had changed his and his wife's lives, I said, "I don't know. I know juice is hot right now, but drinking it sounds like health with the punishment." I was familiar with the juice craze. I knew it was popular, but really, how much change could adding it to your diet bring about? What could really happen in 7 days? James wouldn't back down, though. At the time, we worked out of the same office space and he'd regularly show up with bottles of earthy green, red, and orange juices he was drinking, and I thought, No way am I drinking that stuff. But in an effort to get him off my back, I finally tried one. Wow, it really did stop me in my tracks. I've always stood firm that I'm not willing to eat something just because it's good for me. I'll try anything once, but it has to taste good, too, and this bottle of juice blew me away. I actually liked it. I thought, Well, if I can enjoy this, anyone can. What's more, after only a few days of ditching my coffee habit and replacing it with juice, I began to feel… younger. More energetic, more focused at work, and like my metabolism had been given a kick in the pants. I took some home for my wife and she soon claimed that after drinking a juice or two throughout the day, she felt more fluid, light, and comfortable in her body. My kids started drinking it, too, and soon they were demanding it instead of soda. This juice—it was the craziest thing.

It wasn't long before I assumed the role of CEO of Suja, and I continue to be amazed by the transformative and restorative power of simple vitamin- and nutrient-dense ingredients. Old habits die hard, so I'm the first to admit that I slip up from time to time (Annie can attest to this!), and when I do eat or drink something less than healthy, I don't beat myself up too much about it because I know how to quickly and easily get back on track. It typically only takes one green juice and a simple, balanced meal before I'm feeling and looking a whole lot better. I continue to be amazed at how these relatively simple changes to my diet have transformed me into the healthiest version of myself. Today Suja is populated by nearly 200 people like Annie and me who share a similar passion for health and wellness, and we're all committed to working every day with a mission of helping even more people like you understand how to significantly shift how you look and feel—one juice at a time.

MORE THAN JUICE!

While juice is central to this 7-day program, the refreshing news is that the Suja Juice Solution extends far beyond juice. It's not a severe cleanse or restrictive juice diet where you only drink liquids. This program offers you more. And by more, we mean food! Don't get us wrong—juice cleanses and "detoxes" have their place, and at Suja we've developed several. Many of our celebrity customers love them for how they help them to look and feel before a big premiere or strutting down the red carpet, but a juice cleanse has a hard expiration date. Meaning, it's not a sustainable lifestyle because subsisting on liquids alone isn't how real people live—let alone survive and thrive. Red-carpet moments are just that—moments. Sooner than later, the human body not only wants to, but also needs to eat real food.

Did you know that if you're not careful, juice only diets can rob your body of protein, leaving you deficient in the nutrients and materials your body needs? Even more concerning is that if you're not consuming enough calories throughout your all-juice diet, your body will likely start eating lean muscle instead of burning fat for energy. And you know what fat without the muscle looks like—flab!

As with other crash diets that severely limit your fat and caloric intake, the weight you quickly lose on the most restrictive juice cleanses will almost always return to your hips, tummy, and legs as soon as you begin to eat again. This is because you forced your body into starvation mode where your metabolism slows down to a crawl in an effort to conserve calories simply to keep moving. Once you start to eat real foods again, your body goes into a crazy sort of stockpiling mode, storing those extra calories in fat cells it can live on in anticipation of your next hunger strike. Kinda makes you rethink the reward of crash dieting, doesn't it? We take a different approach. The Suja Juice Solution is based on the very approaches used by many of us to maintain and sustain general nutrition and health every day of our lives. As you might expect, it involves a lot of kale and other mighty greens, but it's not all about the juice because we're big believers in sustainable wellness—in other words, setting the foundation, day by sunny day, for a long, beautiful, and healthy life.

To help you get there, the Suja Juice Solution sets you in motion toward establishing healthier dietary habits you can easily sustain for the next 7 days, and for many weeks down the road. It starts with two simple steps—drink nutrient-dense juice in combination with eating healthier whole foods. Yep, it's that simple. Not only that, but as you begin to consume more high-powered vegetable and fruit juice and nutrient-dense fresh foods on a day-to-day basis, you will automatically, and perhaps even unconsciously, crave less of the not-so-great stuff because you're so full of what your body really wants and needs to function at its highest health potential. It may sound too good to be true, but trust us, it happens.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

We'll never forget the man who bought 30 bottles of juice on the spot when we did our initial product rollout at Whole Foods Market in La Jolla. William, then in his mid-50s and very overweight, approached us and explained that he was desperately looking for a plan to overhaul his current diet and transform his general health. We suggested he begin drinking low-sugar juices while consciously crowding out a few of his favorite not-so-healthy indulgences (his were potato chips and French fries. What are yours? We all have 'em!) and create meals using simple, whole foods.

Fast-forward to a year later and William resurfaced at another of our product events—but we didn't know it was him at first. An energetic, fit man approached our table and said, "Do you remember me? I bought 30 bottles of your juice when you first came on the market. I became obsessed with juicing soon after that. I started making my own juice blends every day and better managing what and how I eat. I'm within just a few pounds of my goal weight." We were all floored! He looked like a completely different person.

Then there was Claire, a young woman living in Seattle who was seeking a nutrition-based solution to improve the look of her skin. We suggested hydrating and alkalizing green juice and limiting her consumption of refined sugars. Two months later she wrote us back with an attached photo of her beautifully clear and glowing skin. She claimed that once she cut processed sugar from her diet and began drinking natural juice to satisfy her sweet cravings, her skin started to clear up almost overnight. She wrote, "I finally like the face I see back in the mirror."

Finally, we love the sentiments expressed by a good friend of the Suja family, Max Goldberg, the founder of PressedJuiceDirectory.com and LivingMaxwell.com: "I have come to greatly appreciate and understand that what I put into my body needs to support me on both a physical and emotional level. As such, there is nothing that makes me feel so vibrant, happy, and energetic as starting my morning by drinking organic juice. Juicing gives my body the essential nutrients and vitamins that it needs to perform at its best and is critical for helping me maintain a positive and happy outlook. In the past, I used to drink alcohol and do drugs—all to avoid life. I have since given those things up and replaced them with organic juice, which helps me embrace life."

The nutrients, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals, and antioxidants found in fresh fruit and vegetable juice and whole foods are what our bodies really need to function at their best. And when you give your body what it truly desires, it no longer craves or holds on to what it doesn't. Fed the right ingredients, your body will quickly and quite easily reset itself, even in just 7 days.