Ugh Protein...

I am having the worst time finding any supplemental proteins I can tolerate.  I bought a bunch of samples before surgery, and some have been tolerable.  Not many, but a few.  I have since bought larger containers of some of the tolerable ones and they all disgust me.  Today I bought the lemon tea flavored nectar, which was one of the only nectars I tried that I liked.  I tried it plain, that didn't work.  I mixed it with CL peach tea as someone suggested, that was horrendously sweet.  Yet another container of protein I will probably never finish.  I need to sell them all or something.  I am going to have to just add (basically undissolvable) plain soy protein to homeade smoothies because every single whey has been and I can't afford to keep trying them, even the samples are starting to add up.  Even plain whey is evil.   I am just griping.  So anyone want a discounted container of nectar lemon tea protein, or some random vanilla whey protein powders?  Or half a case of RTD atkins advantage vanilla shakes?  (lived on before surgery, can't even swallow now).  Or whatever I try next?  Blech.  Isopure RTDs - disgusting protein bullets - disgusting protein bars (3-4 varieties) disgusting or dumpsville What is the best protein any of you have tried?  And the cheapest tolerable protein?

Have you tried Unjury unflavored?  That is my favorite because it is versitile.  I will mix it in cream of wheat or oatmeal, or with water and CL to go packs.  You can order it at www.unjury.com.  I also like their chocolate and the chickenbroth isn't bad.  The strawberry is too sweet for me, but I will mix it in plain yogurt with a few frozen strawberry pieces.  I don't like their vanilla. I do like the EAS vanilla powder that I get at Sams or Costco.  I mix that with plain yogurt, some frozen berries and make a smoothie.  The chocolate is good too.  I don't like the Isopure at all!

i love the ready to drink advantedge cafe caramel shakes by EAS! i'm close to 3 years out and i'm still drinking them -- i like them! i order cases right from eas, and if they have it in stock, they are really quick...but often times they don't seem to have it readily available, so then i go to amazon and am able to get cases of it thru them. http://register.eas.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?a=b&ite m=6814 best of luck to you! deb

A lot of folks swear by Unjury, so you may want to give that a try.  Me, I couldn't tolerate any of it, so I drank Carnation Instant Breakfast No Sugar made w/ skim milk and added non-fat powdered milk to it for more protein.  It was the only liquid protein I could tolerate - everything else just tasted awful or made me gag.  While CIB isn't the best liquid protein, it got me through the liquid phase just fine, and I continued to supplement with it for another 2-3 months just to get in some extra protein and fluids.   For protein bars, the only ones I really like are Pure Protein bars.  They have 17 grams of carbs (2 g sugars and 11 g sugar alcohols) and 20 grams of protein for 190 calories.  I like the chocolate-peanut butter, blueberry crumb, and strawberry crumb.  Not sure if you'd dump from the carbs...  I also liked Power Crunch bars early out - they are the taste/texture of vanilla wafer cookies.  Again, I liked the chocolate-peanut butter flavor.  The Power Crunch bars are easy to chew down to mush too...   Good luck finding something that works for you!  I remember how frustrating it was to buy things that I wound up hating Kellie

Thanks for the suggestion Kellie, I forgot about CIB, although I did drink it right after surgery and still have some in the pantry. 

I'm gonna tell you little secret - I have never drunk a protein shake, supplement, etc. I take that back, I TRIED to drink them and got sicker than a dog. i'm with you on the Isopure especially, those were utterly disgusting! I talked to my nutritionist and she put me on creamed soups with mil****il I could eat solid foods, then I lived on cottage cheese and this ricotta cheese/parmeson/pizza sauce recipe.  And I'm lucky, when I went to solid foods I had no problem with any foods - not chicken, eggs, etc. So all my protein is from everything BUT shakes, etc. The funny thing is, whatever I ate then I can't eat now - the tastebuds change so much throughout this whole process. Hope you can find something that works for ya, but don't feel bad if you get to the point where  you never want one again - I get in all my protein just fine without them.

I seem to vary so far - Like you, I'd really like to get all my protein from food, that is my preferred route.  Some days I can, and some days I'm not even close.  My appetite really seems to depend a lot on whether I am burning fat or not.  During my (first) stall, most food was much easier, and sometimes even appealing.  Now I am back to losing a little less than a pound per day and the thought, taste, smell, idea of food pretty much disgusts me.  I would imagine ketosis has something to do with it.  So mainly I am looking for a protein supplement I can force down at the end of the day if I didn't get there with food, it doesn't have to be good, or enjoyable.  It just has to go down, stay down, and not make me feel bad.   I hope this won't be permanent, just for a few months.  I may try CIB again, I did drink it immediately post op without too much trouble.  I don't have a problem digesting solid protein (chicken, fish, even really tender steak) or beans or cheese.  Its just that I don't want to eat or can't eat sometimes.  I never expected it to be hard to eat, maybe I should be glad while it lasts?  

Unjury for me! It was really about the only one I could tolerate. I would drink Nectar Roadside Lemonade ever so often, but I'd always mix in a CL lemonade with it to make it more like lemonade. My secret, always drink protein drinks out of a cup with a lid, then the smell doesn't get to you as bad. Hey, it worked for me. I am very happy that I only was allowed protein drinks until one month post-op.

I'm with you--hated every protein drink I tried, even the ones everyone else loves.  I did find a couple of protein bars that I could do, but I still prefer to get my nutrition from real food.  I drink skim milk to raise my protein--generally 2 cups a day.  With colder weather, I make sf hot cocoa using skim milk instead of water.  I am horrible in summer about not wanting to chew.   Good luck, Sally

Hi there I use the Choc whey protien from Wal-mart. I mix it with skim milk instead of water and that works for me. It is about 12-13 dollars I think hope this helps. Cheryl