No longer able to tolerate protein drinks

I am a little over 3wks post op and I was doing really good getting in my 2 protein drinks a day, but ever since I hit 3 wks I find they are really hard to drink. I'm not getting nauseous and have no symptoms of being sick when I drink them I just find that they are "heavy" when I do take a sip and it's making it really difficult to finish a full drink which is preventing me from getting my protein in daily. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions on what I should do?

Have you tried the protein waters? Blending the Shakes with water or ice to lighten them? Tried different shakes? Not sure about your program but mine allowed 8 oz of fairlife skim milk each day - it was a bit more protein than other milks, is that an option for you? Good luck working through it! Hitting your hydration and protein goals is very important as you heal!

I couldn't stand to look at or drink another shake post-op because of the 2-week pre-op diet. They also tasted "too sweet" after surgery.

I was allowed to use non-fat milk, mix in protein powder (about 20 g per scoop - Unjury), and add a little sugar-free Hershey's chocolate syrup. It gave me the approximate equivalent of a protein shake and I could tolerate it.

I still drink 1 or 2 of these glasses of milk a day because I'm still having problems eating solid proteins. They help me meet my daily fluid and protein goals.

---Joyce

I barely made it to 4 weeks on shakes. They made me gag so bad I couldn't even swallow them in the end. The last week I was able to get through it by partially freezing them - especially the caramel PP - I could chug that half frozen. My center wanted us off shakes and eating food at 1 month anyway - not easy, but it's doable. I lived on yogurt and pureed beef chili w/cheese for a while.

Go online and find the brand Unjury protein powder. They have a chicken soup flavor! I loved it when I was so sick of thick sweet shakes. I used to heat up water with a little bullion - but not too hot or the protein powder will clump. Then whisk in the Unjury chicken soup powder.

Sugar free Torani syrups are good too. I used to blend up water and ice and chocolate protein powder and then mix in mint sugar free syrup which isn't very sweet. It was super refreshing.

My all-time favorite is Chike high protein iced coffee powder. Mix with water and ice. I got in on amazon and had it every day for 1.5 years for breakfast.

I think it is pretty common to dislike the sweet protein drinks after surgery... Unjury chicken broth protein powder is good. Syntrax has some good ones, I liked Fuzzy Navel. You can mix protein powder into plain greek yogurt. Protein waters are everywhere now, I like the PRotein2o waters, and specially lemonade and coconut.

I hit a wall at 5 weeks where I was gagging everytime I went to drink a protein drin****pt on trying different ones- Costco, Vitamin Shoppe and GNC let you return open containers you don't like... Finally between unflavored in food and finding coffee flavored - Click and Fit Frappe it kept me going for awhile. Also Syntrax has flavors like ice tea and lemonade that mix in water.