I am scheduled for surgery on November 10 and I am learning all about what to expect and what I should be eating in the different stages.

I have always been a fruit and vegetable eater and have often juiced fruits and vegetables and blended them.

In the first stage, Clear liquids right after surgery, do you think juicing fruits and vegetables will be OK? I have a juicer that extracts just the juice with absolutely no pulp and so I would consider those to be clear liquids. I really don't want to be drinking a lot of commercially available stuff with a lot of artificial sweetners and chemicals in them. Would love to know what you think.

Definitely talk to your surgeon or NUT about this. For my clear liquid phase, I had to be able to see through the liquid (with the exception of some protein supplements were allowed). I think I was allowed clear, no-sugar added fruit juice if it was diluted but don't think I ever drank it during my clear phase. I know I drank V8 during my full liquid phase.

As ISG noted, you really have to check with your surgeon's team to see what they want. Docs vary widely in their progression rates and stages, for instance, I never had a liquid only phase post-op as we could have purees and soft Proteins as tolerated along with liquids from the outset. Docs have their reasoning for their post op programs based upon their own training and experiences, so only they can really provide this kind of guidance to you.

As a side note on differing philosophies, some docs will be fine with you juicing (whether it would be considered to be a "clear" or "full" liquid is yet another matter!) while others won't want you getting into (or continuing) a habit of drinking calories, and others may not want you having any fruit at all while losing due to their typical sugar content. So, you can see that this is a great big YMMV thing in this WLS world.

I never had a clear liquid phase but here's my take on juicing:

Do it very sparingly. It's a quick way to get way to much sugar and because you are juicing you get almost no Fiber as a counterbalance. I rarely use my juicer these days and when I do I portion it out into ice cubes and add one or two cubes to a smoothie. I use my nutra bullet much more often. Yes things are still pulverized, but you still get the whole fruit or veg and retain some of that fiber.

I agree with the others, discuss this with your nutritionist. Particularly amounts and portion sizes.

You'll be drinking calories containing no protein. You must concentrate on protein. If you do it at the start, it'll be harder to give up later, especially when FIBER is the next best thing after protein and water.