That sounds like a much more palatable way of dealing with this! My sister just told me about the Orgain protein powder (in the context for after my surgery)- not entirely sure if it is just available in the States or also here in Canada .... will be looking for it as she highly recommends it. I am unable to tolerate the vanilla no matter what I try (and there were some excellent suggestions to help with it)- it literally comes up as soon as it goes down. So I'm sticking to two chocolate Slimtime a day and supplementing that with the allowed broth and sugarless jello as well as sugarless gum. It's less than 600 calories a day but I'm doing ok on it - especially when I had a cup of instant decaf coffee to the mix with ice and water.

Good morning :)

Nothing much planned for today. Might go do a couple small errands. We are trying to clean out our basement a bit and I have someone coming to pickup some stuff today.

Accountability: meh. I had a couple extra bites before bed last night.

Post-op four years and three months.

Breakfast - protein shake with blueberries

Snack - carrots and PB

Lunch - tbd

Snack - pepperette and cheese

Dinner - pork tenderloin that I found in the depths of my freezer lol

Snack - SF pudding

All water and vits.

Good morning Gang! I so did not want to go to the gym this morning but because I verbalized my goal of getting there every day this week I dragged my sore, tired body out of bed. I did just over 16 kms (10 mi) on the bike. I wanted to stop at 15 but that was only 9.47 mi and that just sounds silly. I might need a nap at my desk this morning.

Post Op 3 yrs 1 + mos

B - 2 egg cups

S - oikos key lime

L - chicken sandwich on 35 calorie bread (yesterdays lunch - I went for a salad instead)

S - pepperette, cheese, pickles

D - korean beef bowl

Have a great day everyone - we're almost halfway to the weekend.

Optifast is ghastly. I thought I saw somewhere that they had reformulated it, but it sounds like they haven't (maybe in the States). I find with any of these shakes (and there will be whey protein shakes after surgery) that if you add some unsweetened cocoa powder and/or instant coffee granules, it cuts the sweetness and makes them a bit more palatable, whether you're starting with vanilla or with chocolate. If you can't find the decaf coffee granules, you can brew some decaf coffee, refrigerate it, and use it as the fluid in your shake.

But I'm going to be a troublemaker and give you some information I gleaned from a dietitian with a long list of credentials who has specialized in bariatric surgery for a decade.

The point of the pre-op diet is to shrink your liver, and to do that you need a very low calorie diet (about 1000 cals/day) that's also very low in carbs (less than 50 grams/day) and high in protein. Optifast is a simple (not easy!) way to do that, but it isn't the only way. Any program that still requires Optifast despite new developments in bariatric surgery is simply sadistic.

In this dietitian's program they prescribe a pre-op diet as follows: 2 to 3 protein shakes (they use Orgain), 1 meal with less than 20 grams of carbs (e.g., chicken avocado salad), and a couple of low-carb snacks such as a cup of non-starchy veg, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, or a boiled egg.

In other words, if you stray from the Optifast but keep your calories and carbs down, you will be fine. Now, without a solid knowledge of nutrition, you might not be able to put together such a diet without a dietitian's help, but you really can't go wrong snacking on celery and cucumber if you're desperate for some crunch and some relief from the sweetness of your "meals."

I totally spaced on posting this morning!! I had to make a trip to Shoppers - 20% off coupon plus a formula coupon. It was too good to pass up ;)