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Adding Fruits into Your Shakes?



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My bariatric binder that my surgeon's office gives you cautions you away from adding in fruits to your shakes in your post-op diet. I'm curious...

I've started drinking the shakes the my doctor's office sells just to make sure I like the taste (and to try them with Almond Milk vs. Water, in the blender vs. a shaker bottle, etc) and I added in a banana to the chocolate shake. It's seriously delicious. I'm a little sad that I can't have it in my post-op diet.

How many of you add in a fruit to your shakes when you're in the maintaining stage? I know that a lot of fruit is not a great idea, but I'm curious if it would be okay for a treat every now and then (as opposed to having ice cream, which I know will just kill my stomach).

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My diet allows fruit. I like frozen bananas and strawberries in my shakes. I have since three weeks post surgery.

Different doctors push different diet strategies. Lot of different ways up the mountain. i like a diet that includes fruit. It can be done.

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After surgery I began using Protein Shake. I hated them. There is no comparison to milk shakes, so I even hate the phrase. After a few months post op, I began blending in a half a banana into my Protein Shakes to make them more palatable.

According to my instructions, bananas became an acceptable food group to consume at week 5.

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I blended fruit into my Protein Shakes beginning week one. As long as your sugar and calories are reasonable I can't see why not.

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Try to keep it to just one piece of fruit per shake and you should be fine. Also you can add all the veggies you want, I personally love adding a cup or two of spinach (lots of Iron and fiber) and it doesnt change the flavor profile that much, some people swear by kale.

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Somebody gave me a bag of unsweetened frozen blueberries, wonder if I can add them to future shakes?

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1 hour ago, Frustr8 said:

Somebody gave me a bag of unsweetened frozen blueberries, wonder if I can add them to future shakes?

It depends on your program. But personally I think fruit is part of a healthy balanced diet.

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It does definitely depend of the program. fruit is healthy in moderation but sugar is sugar regardless of what form it comes in. That’s likely the reason programs limit it. Many fruits like Bananas cause higher insulin spikes than fruits like berries.

Back when I was doing Protein Shakes for muscle building, I always added 1 cup of berries to my shake. Later when I needed to focus on weight loss I gradually reduced the amount and finally got down to enjoying just 1/4 cup of berries.

I imagine post-op I’ll continue to add berries but in an even smaller amount due to portion size adjustments.

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All plans are different... but you trusted YOUR surgeon to cut you open, I would trust your surgeons plan. If you want permission to deviate from it get it from YOUR doctor not someone else’s.

I stayed far away from sugar in all forms until I was close to goal. I eat small amounts of natural sugar now, but doing without helped me get rid of my sweet tooth. Plus sugar makes me hungrier. It doesn’t for everyone but I’m personally glad to be rid of that monkey on my back.

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Honestly, too, I wanted to break my desire and need for “delicious” too. In the early days Protein Shakes were medicine for me, not a treat.

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On 06/13/2018 at 19:47, Love2Travel816 said:



My bariatric binder that my surgeon's office gives you cautions you away from adding in fruits to your shakes in your post-op diet. I'm curious...




I've started drinking the shakes the my doctor's office sells just to make sure I like the taste (and to try them with Almond Milk vs. Water, in the blender vs. a shaker bottle, etc) and I added in a banana to the chocolate shake. It's seriously delicious. I'm a little sad that I can't have it in my post-op diet.




How many of you add in a fruit to your shakes when you're in the maintaining stage? I know that a lot of fruit is not a great idea, but I'm curious if it would be okay for a treat every now and then (as opposed to having ice cream, which I know will just kill my stomach).


Fruit is allowed in my plan. I have a Protein smoothie every morning. Mostly strawberry powder with spinach. Sometimes half a banana, hand full of almonds, and chocolate powder. If I really want a treat, I’ll do strawberries, mango, or blueberries. But this is quite rare. This smoothie kicks off my day with 45 grams of protein. It’s not terribly sweet, but the fruit portions are very small.

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8 hours ago, jess9395 said:

Honestly, too, I wanted to break my desire and need for “delicious” too. In the early days Protein Shakes were medicine for me, not a treat.

This is a great example of how we are all different. I need delicious in my diet. If I feel deprived of tasty things, then I am much more likely to binge on something terrible. If I can find foods that have reasonable calories and macros and still taste good, then I am much more likely to stick to my program.

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On 6/13/2018 at 5:47 PM, Love2Travel816 said:

My bariatric binder that my surgeon's office gives you cautions you away from adding in fruits to your shakes in your post-op diet. I'm curious...

I've started drinking the shakes the my doctor's office sells just to make sure I like the taste (and to try them with Almond Milk vs. Water, in the blender vs. a shaker bottle, etc) and I added in a banana to the chocolate shake. It's seriously delicious. I'm a little sad that I can't have it in my post-op diet.

How many of you add in a fruit to your shakes when you're in the maintaining stage? I know that a lot of fruit is not a great idea, but I'm curious if it would be okay for a treat every now and then (as opposed to having ice cream, which I know will just kill my stomach).

I was allowed fruit without seeds. Of course it had to be pulverized in the vita mix.

Edited by Seahawks Fan

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Well, I started making my own Protein Shakes. Warning this takes a lot of dedication. Anyways I cultured my own Kefir..... which is loaded with whey Protein, Vitamins, and Probiotics. However, to make sure I was getting enough vitamins and minerals I would also add a 1/2 scoop of a Protein Shake. It would all depend on what my fancy is for that particular day as to which type of fruit I would add. For instance, during berry season ( i love picking any kind of berries) I fresh pick wild black cap berries (one of the best Antioxidants too) freeze them and add them to my kefir shake. As a sweetener I use Stevia and I would use 1/2 scoop of the berry Protein Powder. The frozen berries usually suffice for thickening the shake but at times I like to add another very good for you food as a thickener and that is Chia Seeds. Then what I would do is just tally all the calories in the shake. Many times I would only drink 1/2 cup in morning and the rest in the afternoon

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      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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