Don't try this at home, kids!

I've spent the week coming up with high calorie shakes and foods to prevent weight loss in nursing home patients. The chocolate peanut butter shake has 1070 calories! It was a good reminder to me of just how quickly those calories add up. I know one thing...peanut butter can be dangerous to our weightloss efforts! A lot of the really fattening recipes seemed to include peanut butter! It gave me a whole new perspective! Why wasn't I this creative when Kim was losing too much weight? I have several pages of incredibly high calories recipes now (just in case any of you find yourself in need!) Wanda

excellent point / REMINDER! My surgeons office and NUT said DON'T drink your calories

Actually I use peanut butter quite a bit. In limited quantities usually just a tablespoon. But I've found that just a tablespoon eaten by itself curbs my hunger and sweet tooth for quite some time. I do not, however, ever use it in a shake because you're quite right, it adds a ton of calories quickly!! Corinna

If I have peanut butter in the house, I will constantly dip into it. And the chocolate peanut butter from Dreamfields...forget about it! I could eat the jar in about 2 or 3 hours. It's a curse.

Oh yeah...I know what you mean. I always only get simply Jiff which is lower carb. It's not as sweet so I'm not tempted to eat as much of it. There is NO way I'd be able to resist chocolate peanut butter!!! Reeses Peanut Butter cups are one of my all time FAVORITE candies. And unfortunately I discovered that they are low enough in sugar that they don't make me sick to eat them...bad, bad, bad!!! At least we're learning what we can and can't resist and take steps to help ourselves resist the ones we can't...like not buying them, most of the time

One of my WLS buddies tipped us in on this. It's called PB2 it's a powdered peanut butter you can mix with water to make it or just put it in your shakes. Way less calories and fat. Check it out at www.bellplantation.com Deb

Yep--I have the PB2 in the pantry. It's ok, but not nearly as good as the high-fat version! I'm like Corrina, I don't add peanut butter to shakes because it's just extra calories. Besides, the Whey Gourmet Chocolate Peanut is fantastic all by itself. My goal with the high calorie shakes was to pack on the pounds for nursing home residents who are starting to lose weight. So with that I use high fat cream, high fat peanut butter, premium ice cream, etc. It was so hard to even think in those terms! I'm trying to prove to our dietitian that we should always try food first before jumping to other interventions. I actually had to threaten to fire her yesterday. I hope she gets on board, because I just hate to fire people. But sometimes they make me do it! I consider it their choice, because I always tell them what they need to do to not be fired!

Wanda, My gym smoothie bar makes a couple of "gainer" drinks over 1000 calories each. I just can't fathom drinking 1000 calories at one sitting! Although, pre surgery, I bet many of us drank 1000 calories of soda, milk shakes, etc quite often. These gainer drinks have things like chocolate ice cream, protein powder, banana and p-nut butter. I think they call it a chunky monkey. They also have a hot chocolate mocha over 1000 calories. I looked at the nutrition online for their smoothies and the lowest calorie one is 220 calories. (they don't even post the nutrition in the bar) I took some of their ideas and lightened them up for home consumption. Yummy! with fewer calories too. One of my favorite pick me ups is a TAB energy drink blended with frozen strawberries and protein powder. About 150 calories and gets you moving for a good workout. (caffeine in the tab) Hugs, Val

It's crazy isn't it? Can you imagine drinking 1000 calories on purpose? I read the nutritional content for a peanut butter cookie at Dunkin Donuts --590 calories for a cookie! Makes me paranoid to eat anywhere other than home! Not that I would even try to eat anything from Dunkin Donuts...