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There are a couple of things that are pretty easy to do. One is to add some plain greek yogurt to the mix- the yogurt's tartness helps tame the sweetness. Another is, as you suggest, dilution - I like my shakes thick, like a real milkshake, so I blended it up in a blender with the milk and added ice to thicken it up; then if the flavor was too weak, add unsweetened cocoa powder or vanilla extract to boost the flavor without added sweetness.

Make Sure There’s Something for You to Eat The worst-case scenario is sitting down to eat, looking around the table, and not seeing one semi-healthy food that’s on your WLS diet amidst the mounds of candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls and butter, green bean casserole, and sausage stuffing. Don’t let this happen to you! Whether you’re hosting or you’re a guest, you can always make sure there’s at least something for you to eat. Just make a big enough batch to share with the table. You can never have too many salads, sides, and desserts at Thanksgiving, so consider one or more of the following. Acorn or butternut squash roasted with garlic, rosemary, and chicken broth for seasoning. Roasted Brussels sprouts or green beans with Dijon mustard. Spinach salad with cranberries, chestnut pieces, and cubes of cooked sweet potato. Cabbage and roasted beet salad. Fresh fruit salad. Baked apples with cinnamon and sprinkled with chopped walnuts or pecans. These dishes can save your diet and dignity, and they’re pretty simple! You don’t need to aim for fancy dishes and give yourself any extra headaches in the kitchen at Thanksgiving. Protein and Veggies…You Know the Drill You know how to eat right after WLS. Thanksgiving dinner is no different. Protein comes first, then come veggies. A serving of starch can fit in, and watch out for the condiments. That sounds easy enough, and it’s what you do every other day. Ready to put it in place on Thanksgiving? Your lean protein is probably skinless turkey breast, unless you’re vegetarian or having a non-traditional Thanksgiving. Whether you have tofu, crab, chicken, ham, or venison, you can make a small serving of lean protein the center of your meal. Take mustard and only a dollop of cranberry sauce, which is high-sugar. Veggies come next. Load up on green salads, sautéed broccoli or kale, and anything roasted, such as carrots, green beans, and onions. Watch out for creamy corn and green bean casseroles and buttery vegetables. Finally, garnish your meal with a little bit of starch. Sweet potatoes are healthiest, but you can also opt for a small serving of mashed potatoes, half a dinner roll, or even a spoonful of stuffing. Pick One Special Treat You don’t need to deprive yourself completely on Thanksgiving. If you don’t let yourself have any treats, you might eventually break down and eat way too much later. Better to enjoy a few bites of pumpkin pie now and feel good about it than to cave in to the entire pie later and feel sick and guilty. Give yourself permission to choose a special treat that you love and look forward to every year. Whether it’s your mom’s sausage and apple stuffing or your brother-in-law’s homemade biscuits, let yourself have a few bites of that special treat. Savor every bite. Think about its flavors and texture, and what it means to you, and how proud you are that you can enjoy it and be satisfied with that portion. Practice Eating Slowly Eating slowly is essential on the bariatric surgery diet. Thanksgiving is actually the ideal time to practice your skills. When else do you get the pleasure of good company sitting around the table for hours? Take advantage! Engage in the conversation, and focus on the people, not the food. If you stick to the rule of not talking with your mouth full, and you put your fork down and make eye contact when you’re listening to someone else talk, Thanksgiving dinner will fly by, and you may find you enjoyed it more than ever while eating less than ever. Good deal! Don’t Let Leftovers Weigh You Down The dinner’s over, everyone’s left the table, and the house is quiet again. It’s not yet time to let your guard down, though! The leftovers can be even more dangerous than Thanksgiving dinner itself. Pack them up and get rid of the ones that are trouble – like chocolate cream pie. There are plenty of healthy ways you can use leftover turkey. One is to simply freeze it in small portions and defrost them when you need them. You can also try any of these ideas. Turkey wraps with shredded turkey, mustard, and leftover roasted veggies wrapped in lettuce leaves. Turkey soup with a base of chicken broth, onions, carrots, and celery, plus any veggies you want. Turkey curry with cauliflower, eggplant, peas, and Indian spices. Turkey salad with cooked cubed turkey, halved cherry or grape tomatoes, nonfat plain Greek yogurt, Dijon mustard, diced pickles, and black pepper. Green salad with turkey, avocado, and black beans. There are so many healthy ways to use turkey, you may not even be sick of it after you finish the entire turkey! With these hacks and a little discipline and creativity, you can get through Thanksgiving dinner and beyond feeling healthy and confident, not stuffed and weighed down. That confidence is worth a lot, and it can carry you through the holiday season as you keep working towards your goals.

Whether you’re hosting or you’re a guest, you can always make sure there’s at least something for you to eat. Just make a big enough batch to share with the table. You can never have too many salads, sides, and desserts at Thanksgiving, so consider one or more of the following. Acorn or butternut squash roasted with garlic, rosemary, and chicken broth for seasoning. Roasted Brussels sprouts or green beans with Dijon mustard. Spinach salad with cranberries, chestnut pieces, and cubes of cooked sweet potato. Cabbage and roasted beet salad. Fresh fruit salad. Baked apples with cinnamon and sprinkled with chopped walnuts or pecans. These dishes can save your diet and dignity, and they’re pretty simple! You don’t need to aim for fancy dishes and give yourself any extra headaches in the kitchen at Thanksgiving. Protein and Veggies…You Know the Drill You know how to eat right after WLS. Thanksgiving dinner is no different. Protein comes first, then come veggies. A serving of starch can fit in, and watch out for the condiments. That sounds easy enough, and it’s what you do every other day. Ready to put it in place on Thanksgiving? Your lean protein is probably skinless turkey breast, unless you’re vegetarian or having a non-traditional Thanksgiving. Whether you have tofu, crab, chicken, ham, or venison, you can make a small serving of lean protein the center of your meal. Take mustard and only a dollop of cranberry sauce, which is high-sugar. Veggies come next. Load up on green salads, sautéed broccoli or kale, and anything roasted, such as carrots, green beans, and onions. Watch out for creamy corn and green bean casseroles and buttery vegetables. Finally, garnish your meal with a little bit of starch. Sweet potatoes are healthiest, but you can also opt for a small serving of mashed potatoes, half a dinner roll, or even a spoonful of stuffing. Pick One Special Treat You don’t need to deprive yourself completely on Thanksgiving. If you don’t let yourself have any treats, you might eventually break down and eat way too much later. Better to enjoy a few bites of pumpkin pie now and feel good about it than to cave in to the entire pie later and feel sick and guilty. Give yourself permission to choose a special treat that you love and look forward to every year. Whether it’s your mom’s sausage and apple stuffing or your brother-in-law’s homemade biscuits, let yourself have a few bites of that special treat. Savor every bite. Think about its flavors and texture, and what it means to you, and how proud you are that you can enjoy it and be satisfied with that portion. Practice Eating Slowly Eating slowly is essential on the bariatric surgery diet. Thanksgiving is actually the ideal time to practice your skills. When else do you get the pleasure of good company sitting around the table for hours? Take advantage! Engage in the conversation, and focus on the people, not the food. If you stick to the rule of not talking with your mouth full, and you put your fork down and make eye contact when you’re listening to someone else talk, Thanksgiving dinner will fly by, and you may find you enjoyed it more than ever while eating less than ever. Good deal! Don’t Let Leftovers Weigh You Down The dinner’s over, everyone’s left the table, and the house is quiet again. It’s not yet time to let your guard down, though! The leftovers can be even more dangerous than Thanksgiving dinner itself. Pack them up and get rid of the ones that are trouble – like chocolate cream pie. There are plenty of healthy ways you can use leftover turkey. One is to simply freeze it in small portions and defrost them when you need them. You can also try any of these ideas. Turkey wraps with shredded turkey, mustard, and leftover roasted veggies wrapped in lettuce leaves. Turkey soup with a base of chicken broth, onions, carrots, and celery, plus any veggies you want. Turkey curry with cauliflower, eggplant, peas, and Indian spices. Turkey salad with cooked cubed turkey, halved cherry or grape tomatoes, nonfat plain Greek yogurt, Dijon mustard, diced pickles, and black pepper. Green salad with turkey, avocado, and black beans. There are so many healthy ways to use turkey, you may not even be sick of it after you finish the entire turkey! With these hacks and a little discipline and creativity, you can get through Thanksgiving dinner and beyond feeling healthy and confident, not stuffed and weighed down. That confidence is worth a lot, and it can carry you through the holiday season as you keep working towards your goals.

As for those bumps please have those checked asap. Don't wait! And at 2 weeks out you should only have puréed food. Like chicken with broth in a blender, or split pea soup, Greek yogurt. Blend your food. And not all foods. Than about 4-5 weeks after surgery you can have soft foods. Tuna, chicken, eggs, hummus, cottage cheese, look ideas up. Google puréed diet food and stages for biactric.

I feel your pain. I got a C. diff infection, also from clindamycin for a tooth infection. It just so happened to be 6 weeks after my VSG. Uncontrollable diarrhea with about a 10 second warning via severe cramping. No stopping it, no preventing it. At first they put me on metronidazole for 10 days, diarrhea cleared up, all was fine but then came back within 2 days of stopping meds. Another two weeks of metronidazole. Same thing, cleared up but came back as soon as I stopped. The worst part was that the metronidazole made me extremely nauseous and I could barely eat or drink anything....I was seriously having to spit out my own saliva cause swallowing it made me gag. I ended up needing IV fluids for dehydration 3 times. Plan B....vancomycin for three weeks. This is normally insanely expensive. $800-$1000 for the course but my gastroenterologist has a pharmacy that makes a vancomycin elixir for like $150. Vanco worked great....cleared up the diarrhea and didn't make me sick. But once again, 5 days after stopping the diarrhea came back. Oh, BTW, I had been drinking/eating yogurt and taking OTC probiotics since day 3 postop. I was also taking a 22 strain 50,000CFU probiotic and Sacromyces supplements once I was diagnosed with C.diff. Obviously didn't matter. So restarted Vanco and made plans for a fecal transplant. My insurance insurance wouldn't pay for it but I wasn't about to go through months and months of an ineffective antibiotIc regimen. Normal poop was worth the $$$ I had to pay. My gastroenterologist had done about 35 of them with a 100% cure rate. So I recruited a friend to be my donor.( my PCP's wife, actually), we went through all the blood and fecal tests to make sure she wasn't going to give me any other transmissible diseases and went ahead with the fecal transplant. It was super easy...just a glorified colonoscopy and it was an INSTANT CURE! Never had an issue since, and that was 20 months ago. BTW, I now list all of the C diff risk antibiotics as allergies so no one ever administers them again. In fact, I don't plan on ever taking any antibiotics ever again unless it's life or death. I just had my gallbladder removed and I let them give me ONE injection of ampicillin periop but refused the postop prophylaxis. Good luck!

Hey Babbs, can you think of another food this would work with? I can NOT eat cottage cheese. I accidentally drank some curdled milk as a kid and the thought of it makes me gag. I can eat a banana and a yogurt at the same time and just feel mildly full. Haven't tried two bananas but that might be a good test.

At that time I was living off Progresso soups with 8grams or higher protein, cottage cheese, fruit and Dannon 80's yogurt. My whole life before the surgery I hated mashed potatoes, now I cant get enough of them.

Lucky you, I'm on day 3 pre op and I can't stop thinking about food, doesn't help that I don't really like milk or yogurts. I'm on a no carb no fat liquid diet

Hey everyone. I was sleeved on Veteran's Day and have had a fairly blessed recovery for the most part. The only pain and issue am having now is an active c diff infection, which I assume arose as a result of my post surgery IV antibiotics. For those of you who do not know what c diff is...this an intestinal bacteria is carried around by some people...I was a cna for years so I probably picked it up there despite following universal precautions. It is a very stubborn spore bacteria that can live on surfaces for a long time and can only be killed with bleach. Normally the good bacteria in the gut keep it at bay but antibiotics can kill all the good bacteria and this awful bug can take over.it gives bowel movement an awful, very distinct smell. It makes for frequent diarrhea and the toxins given off irritate thw colon...it can get very severe if untreated. This is what I have gathered from googling...so if there are any healt professionals out there that need to correct me feel free:) Anyway, I had c diff once a couple years ago after 3 weeks of clindamyacin from a bad tooth..and it was bad...there was so much irritation that I guess it pressed on my nerves and my legs would go numb every time I had and episode of cramping from it. I was constantly running to the bathroom and the pain was horrible. I couldn't sleep or eat. It took over a month for me to get ot under control and when I thought it was leaving me it would seem to relapse. When I started eating brown rice it seemed to soak it up and get it out of there...I started taking Probiotics and eating yogurt to get things straight again. This time I started out with a swollen abdomen. I had just figured out that I became lactose intolerant from my sleeve and the gas left but the swelling didn't. When I smelled the smell I knew! Yuck! Thank God I had my post op around then and started flagyl and probiotics right away. I am on my 2nd day of flagyl (which ironically is an antibiotic). I only wish I had been on probiotics since before the surgery. I really should have known better! I also battled thrush before the c diff showed up..blech! As awful as all this sounds I don't feel horrible....just very very uncomfortable:( Emotionally I feel the best I have since surgery...I am back to work, though very very part time..and I still have an appetite. Its uncomfortable because my poor swollen colon (lol) is pressing my tiny stomach and its even harder to get food in now...though I am still being vigilant about getting in fluids and protien. Flagyl is a yucky antibiotic...I can feel the irritation building up in my still healing sleeve:( It makes me a bit queasy at times but I have heard worst horror srories about these meds so I still consider myself blessed! Its very strange watching my weight come down as my jeans get tighter! I am not having bad diarhea episodes now...but I believe all the swelling has my poop stuck! Very litle has happened at that end for 2 days. Ok let me get to my point..anyone else out there going through or have gone through this? What helped? Outnof despiration I started eating small amounts of brown rice (chewed to death) before I was really supposed to..thank God it went down!..it has yet to come out! I also read that protien hinders the process..so I am going to try eating a bit of oatmean and unsweetwned apple sauce and drop down a little on protien shakes for a couple days. I also have been having smooth move tea every other day through this and prune juice on the opposite days. I think I need to have a diet that moves things along but not hard on my sleeve..any ideas out there? This is a very crazy thing to deal with at this stage of the game and I want it nipped in the bud! I know it will take time. Prayers and suggestions are welcome and I hope this may have educated someone and I hope I didn't scare anybody. Probiotics are important!!!

Counseling sounds like a good idea. Over a year out I still attend my programs support groups. They are a tremendous help to me. I bookend my workouts with protein. Pre-workout a have either a potent protein shake with yogurt, protein powder and a bit of nit butter or something hearty like steel cut oats with a bit of protein powder added in. Post workout, I may have the rest of my protein drink and an ounce of nuts. It helps me not go into that crazy hungry mode after a work out and fuels me during my workout.

I started my pre-op diet last Friday, I'm on mostly liquids with the exception of yogurt, Jello, pudding, and cottage cheese. Tomato soup has been my savior, it makes me feel like I'm still allowed food. The only advice I can give is to make sure you have food on your plan prepared and within reach. I'm fine one minute and then feel like I'm starving the next and a couple of times I've almost reached for things I'm not supposed to have. I have a cooler by my desk at work with jello and yogurt, at home I have containers of everything prepared. Popsicles have also been a great distraction, the sugar free tropical ones are super good and help with the head hunger. I'm down 5 lbs already, it's craziness!

Nooo apologizes newstart38, thank you for sharking.. sorry you had a rough time post procedure and continue to have some issues even at home.. your not alone, each of us has had some sort of lingering issue or minor setback.. Sounds like your tummy hunger calls though are within reason, the trick is giving it something it wants that it will like. I was similar to you post-op day 2-5 I was not sure if I was hungry or cramping, one time I took 2 doses of cramping meds thinking i was cramping a lot but I was actually hungry. Over time the cramping will actually move either to the left or lower left of your incision, and then your tummy center-right will start to have its own unique space for hunger pain, it will make it easy to tell the difference between cramp and pain.. at first it all runs together. Now when it comes to food for the hungry new tummy, I too struggle with finding something that my tummy named "Mr. bumble" will live with.. one day I think i understand the routine and the next day he changes it. be prepared, have cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese if you like it, mash potatoes, and Protein Shakes ready to try so you can find something it likes..only take a taste to see if your tummy will like it, you will know pretty quick if it does not (strangely enough) Since you were sleeved on the 19th, 5 days post op, I think you will start feeling a sense of normalcy over the thanksgiving holiday. keep up the good work!!

Hi Kdelrosso, Congrats on making it to the pre-op diet milestone! I will be starting the pre-op diet on Monday, November 30th. My NUT told me the best advice she could give me was to be sure to mix it up by making changes to the drinks (see below). I am to get in 5 to 6 Protien drinks each day, with 15 grams or more of Protein, 15 grams or less of carbs and between 150-200 calories persserving. I can also have the staple sugar-free Jello & popsicles, broth and lots of Water. To mix up the Protein Drinks she recommends trying the following 3 things: 1. Change the flavor: Add baking extracts, almond milk, sugar free syrups, sugar free koolaid, or Crysal light to change the flavor. 2. Change the texture: Add ice to make it colder and thicker. 3. Adjust the Carbohydrate content: If my Protein drink/powder is very low in carbohydrates, I may add ingredients to increase the carbohydrate content up to 15 grams total per serving. She says to not go over 15 grams in total. Some things on the suggested list of add-ins were 1/4 cup of low-fat vanilla yogurt (8 grams), 1/2 cup raw raspberries (7 grams), 1/2 cupsliced strawberries (6-7 grams), 1/2 medium banana (13 grams), 1 (8oz) cup of coconut milk (6 grams). I was told to change up the flavors and textures as much as possible. This will hopefully keep keep me from becoming bored. I went to Super Suppliments and picked up single serving size packets of 7-8different brands and flavors. I didn't want to buy a huge jar if I wasn't going to like the taste or texture. My goal is to try them all this week and then go back and buy some more of the one's I liked. Hope this helps! Once again, Congratulations! I would love to hear how your journey goes!

I had trouble at first too. Eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese were easy foods to start with. Also Campbell chunky soups. I noticed wet foods (soups) went down easier. Take it slow and if you cant tolerate something , try it again in a few weeks.

I'm just six days out and my Dr has us eat 3 small meals, fat free cream soup, sugar free pudding, yogurt, cream of wheat in the amount of 1/4 cup. Between each meal we are to have a protein shake. I haven't been real good with the shakes but have mixed one with ice and it seems to be going down better. I can't imagine you understand the materials correctly. Good luck!

I feel good as far as pain. I do however have no idea what these weird feelings mean in my stomach. I drink water I get a strange feeling. Drink soup weird feeling. I can't even explain it. I'm allowed yogurt and pudding. I get the same weird feelings. Am I still hungry? I don't know. I have yet to go to the bathroom since morning of my surgery and that has me worried. Perhaps the multi vitamin is not correct any advice on the multi everyone else is taking. Do you eventually begin to understand the gurgling and rumbling feelings in your stomach? I have not thrown up. Perhaps not getting the correct amount of water? I can not wait for my doc appointment on wed but wanted to know your thoughts. You are all great.

Yes, girl, whew...brings back memories! Just concentrate on eating the yogurt when you're able to and just drink those Protein shakes continuously...I still do for my protein! What do you take for your reflux? I take Dexilant 60mg and it's great for me and does much better than any other over the counter or prescription that I've ever tried. I'm sure your sleeve will work for you and you'll do great! Just keep doing what the dr says and never stray! ????????

I had my surgery November 19th and I seem to be bouncing back very quickly. The only thing I am struggling with is the liquid diet! I almost feel like there is no way I will get through these next 2 weeks until I can eat yogurt and cream soups. Did anyone else struggle with? Need some encouragement please ""

I'm so sorry to hear that. It sounds like a nightmare. Good luck! I sure hope everything works out for the best this time. It's so scary to hear this, I just got sleeved 11/11/15. Having some problems but mine sounds pretty petty and minimal compared to yours . I too have a problem with acid reflux sometimes and had to go to ER Sunday night because I was dehydrated from vomiting after trying to mix the Greek Triple Zero yogurt with my carton of Premier Protein shake. And I mixed it with my little ninja like blender and it has a lot of bubbles afterwards and I think that's what starts it. I feel a rabid dog foaming at the mouth and my throat tries to close up. Second time, so that's it for me , never again. Good luck though, I pray it gets so much better.

wonderful story!!! I like the name SAMI.. For soft foods: mash potatoes go well, I actually was able to eat some steamed spinach (small small portion) sweet potato, yogurt (not a fan of cottage cheese).. and egg whites... I am getting about 70-80 grams of protein in which is good and I am up to 50oz of non-protein liquids which I am amazed about.. somedays are better than others even at 11days post-op.. I keep the nausea pills in reach when I try something new just in case... I have not vomited to date, but yes I get the saliva filled mouth (yuck) some morning. but no dry heaving though...thankfully.. Take care

Thanks everyone for your advice's. This is my longest plateau, I had it a month out from my surgery for 2 weeks and than one week in month 3. My nutritional intake about 700 cal and 80 gr of carbs come from my doctors Office as a guideline as I visited him a month ago. I will definitely try the get away from my daily breakfast of yogurt and change up my meals where I still get my protein as needed but not through yogurt for a while, lets see:) I have been keeping my food pretty much the same since I was able to keep a good track of what I was eating since I still eat at my desk at work due to me not getting any breaks away from work.Thanks everyone for your kind words! Happy thanksgiving to you

If you don't like the Protein shakes, try the clear Protein drinks like Isopure no carb or Syntrax nectar. YOU MUST GET IN YOUR PROTEIN. You need protein to heal and to lose. It may also be the reason why you are feeling fatigued. You can get unflavored protein and mix with mashed potatoes. Greek yogurt is packed with protein. Get creative, but do what you have to do to meet your protein and Fluid goals.

@@JamieLogical Dang, you are right.The move itself is exercise. Extra calories. Set your goals in my fitness pal for intake of more calories. My Dr. had me try a few food to get my calories up. Ensure - 1 *ounce bottle is 220 calories. Its an easy grab when you are so busy. Nuts - 201 calories per ounce Whole wheat past, bread, whole fat milk yogurt butter. and brown rice.

Greek yogurt has Protein. You can add Protein powder to pudding. String cheese and deli turkey have protein. So does cottage cheese. You can also add protein powder to Soups and broths. At three weeks out I was eating a lot of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. I was also allowed tuna then. In addition, I continued to drink ProtiDiet liquid beverage concentrates, Protein shakes, and use the ProtiDiet tomato basil and creamy chickens that I was allowed during my liquid phases. With each phase I was able to add foods to what I was already allowed to have so it expanded my options. But, I still ate fairly simply. Just keep trying to do everything you can to get in all of your protein and fluids.

I had sleeve surgery on the 10th. It is 13 days out. I lost 20 lbs in three weeks. Two week liver and 1 week clears post op. I have not lost more than 1 lb since post op appointment and moving to week 2 yogurt, pudding etc. Looking for tips or same stories. What am I doing wrong. Shouldn't it be a consistent 1lb a day loss for 3 months?