Carb Question.....

I started the liquid protein diet to loose the weight I need to loose for surgery. I started Monday and have done fair with it. The protein powder I'm using is fair. At first I used water to mix it. Then a friend told me she liked them much better with milk and that a friend of hers used yogurt to flavor hers so she could drink them. So I started using 2% milk and adding yogur. I moved it down from 8oz of liquid to 6oz and only used half a thing of yogurt. But then I noticed how many grams of carbs the yogurt had so I stopped using it.It had 33g a container so that would have made me getting aprox 89g of cars between the yogurt and the mix. Now I'm using food flavorings. It's not bad but not near as good as the yogurt. Now this morning I noticed that the milk has 11g of carbs for one cup!!! So I'm still getting aprox 60g a day! As far as just for drinking the 1% tastes like water to me but I've not tried it for the drinks yet. Does anyone know if it has less carbs in it? Do you know how many carbs we should have a day? Got any suggestions on flavoring the drinks? I got vanilla and choc but I don't like the choc at all, so I have been using the vanilla. Should I just tough it out and drink it straight and go back to the water to mix with? Any suggestions would be wonderful.....Hope everyone is having a great day.....Thanks...Tammy H

Tammy, Get the Carb Free yogurt, you must have gotten one sweetened with sugar. Also, I always make mine with milk, plain skim milk. You can't tell whether it's skim, 1% or 2% when you're mixing it with powder. I use DaVinci sugar free syrup to flavor mine, it's at Wal-Mart above the coffee. I like caramel and Kaulua flavor. And I use Folger's DeCaf Crystals for coffee flavor. Right now I'm drinking my morning Coffee/Powder/syrup mixture warm, makes me feel like I've been to Starbucks. When the weather is warmer I'll probably like them with ice blended into them. The other trick I use it to mix the powder into water in a bowl, like mixing cornstarch to make gravy and then just stirring it into the milk/coffee/syrup mixture. It doesn't foam up like when I use the Magic Bullet and I don't like the foam. You are in a different phase than I am, I'm post-op, so I don't worry so much about Carbs except from the dumping point. But, it's good that you're aware of them and starting to learn what you will do from now on. I don't like chocolate powder either, just buy vanilla and flavor it up. You could use up your chocolate by making peanut butter balls or something like that. It's just too pricey to waste. Or find someone to give it to who likes chocolate. Hope this helps, if you don't understand something or need more help, let me know. Hugs and love, Lana

I agree w/Lana - get the carb smart yogurt. Also, a trick I'm using that I learned @ weigh****chers was to put a teaspoon or two of sugar free/fat free pudding mix in the blender when making your shakes. This helps give it flavor and also thickens it up a *****eesecake is one of my favorites. Also use frozen fruit - that makes them pretty yummy and the carbs from the fruit are good carbs. I use the skim plus milk and once I have the other stuff mixed in, can't tell the difference. Good luck!

Good Morning Tammy... The protein drink I drink is mixed with 1% milk. I thought I would never go lower than 2%, like you it tasted like water but I have mastered it now and can even drink it by itself! I couldn't drink protein drinks with water, the thought almost makes me gag...lol I don't know the exact amount of carbs needed and I don't mix my protein powder with yogurt and I don't use the food flavorings that you mentioned but I'm pretty sure that someone will be along later to help you with that. My suggestion with the milk would be to try the 1% milk with the protein powder. If you don't like it you might try buying a quart of 1% milk and a quart of 2% milk and mix them together then gradually add more 1% and less 2% until you get it down to 1% and not have any issues with it. This may take awhile for you to get use to so you might even start with smaller cartons of milk. I have found over the time I have been on this board that there is a lot of experimenting and trial and error. You know what you like and dislike...you just have to try whatever sounds good until you get it right, staying within your Dr's orders. This journey you starting shouldn't be a punishment...try to have fun with it. The protein powder I use is called: Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard? Delicious Strawberry they have all kinds of flavors, I just like the Delicious Strawberry! You can get it at GNC stores, at Food for Less or online at: http://www.gnc.com/home/index.jsp I hope I have helped you a little! Good Luck, Deb M

Tammy have you ever tried Soy Milk? I didnt think that I would like it but I use the Soy Light Vanilla has only 2 grams of carb in a 8ozs. The Chocolate Soy light Milk has 12 grams. If you mix it will the protein powder, I cant taste the difference. Like everyone else says use the carb controlled yogurt, or at least get the light yogurt. Hope this helps. Kathleen

Tammy, Here's my 2 cents! : ) I use the low carb fruity yogurts and Carb countdown milk.....but when I make a fruit smoothie I do not use milk....I use strawberry protein pwdr (have used vanilla but it's not nearly as yummy to me) and then diet fruit juice (from the cooler section) and frozen strawberries/or other fruits(mango,banana,blueberries,etc) and ICE. I don't use regular milk ever now, unless I run out of the carb countdown....I cut carbs wherever I can, so I can have some fat free chips when I crave them, or other carbs now and then. But that can lead to bad habbits too. This is jsut the way I've done it....everyone finds what works for them and as you go down this journey you'll try MANY things so you won't get bored. Keep in mind the fat free things, usually have more sugar to make them taste good and the low sugar things often times have more fat....you have to really become a LABEL reader!!! If "ose" is at the end of any of the first five ingredients....that's SUGAR and you should avoid it. ANd some folks don't do well with Splenda cause it makes them CRAVE more sweets...this happened to my sister...her Dr confirmed it when she suspected it. Good luck!!! Tami