I will be having my surgery on 9/4 and have been on Optifast for 4 weeks. 5 shakes a day or 4 shakes and 1 soup or bar a day. I mixed half vanilla and half chocolate to make it more like chocolate milk. Added powdered sugar free jello (about 2 tsp) to vanilla to flavor it for variety. I also mixed my morning shake with hot decaf coffee in the vanilla shake to make it more like a coffee drink. Walden's Farms (can be bought online) products are sugar/fat/carb free and come in salad dressings, seafood sauce, barbeque sauce, etc. and are tasty, inexpensive and allowed freely on my surgeon's diet. I could have unlimited cucumbers, dill pickles, SF jello and SF popsicles. If you use the Optifast soups, mix in boiling water to dissolve the powder best. Good luck. You can do it!