Hello from New Zealand

Hi everyone,

I am an American living in NZ, and have been very overweight for the past 12-13 years. I have been lurking a bit as I have finally made the decision to pursue WLS (RNY).

I had thought about WLS on several occasions before, but felt I was unable to give it the commitment that is needed. Now my life is in a good spot to move forward. I have had a surgical consult and I really like the surgeon. There aren't many here in NZ!

One of my biggest worries is finding the protein shake type things that don't contain sucralose/Splenda or aspartame/Nutrasweet as they cause hideous headaches for me.

Thank you in advance for any advice!

Perhaps your best choice would be to get unflavored/unsweetened protein powder and make your own shakes. Not sure what you can get down there, but I used Isopure Zero Carb Unflavored. That way you can use whatever sweetener works for you. Additionally, you are then in control of the flavors, etc. Best of luck to you!

I know of a brand called ORGAIN and they make stevia sweetened protein products.

I see they advertise in here sometimes.

In US there are a lot of more natural protein shakes made with stevia. I am not sure if the are available where you are.

But using unflavored can be a good choice. There are a lot of people who either drank very little or none at all protein shakes. And were very successful in losing weight and maintain. It can be done.

Nestle makes an unflavored protein called Beneprotein and I believe it is available internationally.

Hi again sk8rt! I have a packet of Unjury brand medical quality protein powder in front of me here - the ingredients are just whey protein isolate and soy lecithin. Unjury has it's own website, you may be able to find out from them (or the other manufacturers) if they have vendors in NZ.

Wishing you the very best of luck on your journey! You and I are at the same point, just about to begin!

Thank you all for the welcome and suggestions! I will follow through with more research.

My primary doc is going to refer me to a nutrition/diet person. (This is part of the protocol here in order to qualify for the surgery.) So I am making progress on the journey, slowly, but progress is happening!

While I am well educated about food in general (former chef for large corporation that needed multiple dietary restrictions) and hubby has coeliac, I really have very little experience with bariatric diets. So I am looking forward to the education.

thank you again!