I'm one of the odd ones that liked optifast by itself (at least the chocolate one - I thought it tasted like chocolate milk mmmm....). Anyways, the suggestions of sugar free syrups from davinci or torani are a good one for optifast, as well as the suggestion of crystal light. 

For the protein powder, I don't use ready made shakes but make my own every morning with my blender, either chocolate and vanilla protein powder and then my fixings. I found bariatric foodie's website (her butterfinger shake is a staple favourite of mine, although I call it peanut butter m&m shake because I've never tried a butterfinger and that's what it tastes like to me. I also recommend the swirly cone shake and sugar cookie shake) and eggface's website (I like the PB&J shake) are great starting places. Once I tried a few, I started experimenting myself, trying to recreate some of my favourite tasting things from pre-op as a WLS-friendly protein shake (somethings actually translate pretty well into a shake, but mind you, I'm going on a taste memory that's a year and a half old so I don't honestly know how close it is, but works for me...).

All this said, the better tasting the protein powder is prior to adding all the good stuff, the better the end product so make sure your try other brands of powders as well. My favourite is Nectar by Syntrax, and you can order sample packs off their website to try them out. 

Hope these ideas help! 

 Way to go! What an awesome accomplishment! 

 Best of luck Ann!

Congrats on your surgiversary! Thank you for taking the time to post this. It was nice to read about your experiences as you progressed. Keep up your amazing work! 

Congrats on the progress! You look great...even though I know it's hard to say goodbye to some of our old favourite items!

Glad it helped! I'm a visual person so videos like this help a lot.  

Actually from the research I've done, there is very little that will stretch your pouch. Your new stomach is made from the least stretchy part of your old stomach and requires alot of effort to stretch, by like continually overeating your pouch size beyond those sensations of fulness. It takes a long time from what I understand... what is more common is stretching your stoma, which is the openning into the intestines from the stomach. If this happens, you loose the sensation of fullness because your stomach is essentially the length of your whole intestines then (I'm not a hundred percent on this but this is what I have read from other OHers and makes sense to me).

This video is really great at showing why we shouldn't eat and drink at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR0VM3mnsgM

I also vote for the Syntrax Nectar proteins. I liked several of their flavours but buy the chocolate and vanilla ones regularly as I adapt them into my own recipes. If you order from their website you can get the variety pack of sample sizes and test out the flavours. It takes a while to come in because you order from the states, but it's only like $13 or something for 13 flavours so it's not a bad deal...

Thank you, it is pretty new!  Summer was pretty good but too short as always LOL 

Hi Andrea,

Can I ask who you saw at HRRH? I had a similar experience.

 Welcome to the century club Toni! Looking good! 

 Congrats on your successes Sandy! Happy surgiversary! 

 Way to go Monica! Good luck for tomorrow!