Optifast flavors

What is everyone's favorite - Chocolate or Vanilla. What do you add to it to change the taste so you don't get bored with the same flavor. 

I am just starting the journey at Guelph.  Have had my first visits with nurse, dietician and social worker.  Am interested in flavorings that can be added to optifast and where to purchase them. 

I bought banana, mint and orange extract. I used the banana and mint in the chocolate and the orange with the vanilla.

i also opened a package of sugar free strawberry and raspberry jello and used the powder with the vanilla. I had to do 4 weeks of opti and because I had flavour it made it a whole lot easier.

I LOVED the chocolate just by its self with 500 ml of water and lots of ice cubes...I could have kept on going (I had a month on opti)  I hated the vanilla.  When I had to drink it I put some coco powder in it to make it tolerable. 

I loved chocolate, id just add a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon to it if i needed a change, or some vanilla extract. blend with ice and super good.

I WAS ON IT FOR ALMOST A YEAR AND I WOULD PUT A SHAKER OF WATER IN FREEZER FOR 1 HR. CRAC**** AND ADD CRYSTAL LIGHT SINGLES AND SHAKES, EASY, ICE COLD AND DELISH. I WOULD SAY I'M A EXPERT AFTER THAT EXPERIENCE. PUTTING THE WATER IN YOUR FRIDGE FREEZER I HR. BEFORE DRINKING IS JUST SO SIMPLE AND REFRESHING.PREFERRED THE VANILLA BUT LOVED THE CHOCOLATE TOO SAME WAY WITHOUT THE CRYSTAL LIGHT.

I just did plain chocolate.  Tasted not too bad.  But check out  http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/ontario_recipes/.  There's a surviving Optifast thread there.

Cathy

I liked adding instant decaf coffee to both flavours 500ml of water and ice like a milkshake!

I'm on it for 3 wks...just fininished week one...I have put decaf instant coffee into the Vanilla makes it like an iced coffee, the chocolate I have bought mint extract and added it.  also orange extract to put in the vanilla makes it taste like a creamsicle.   I have had to change it up...i dont mind the chocolate the vanilla is tollerable.   you just have to experiment

I was on the optifast for 3 weeks and my first day I tried them plain, first chocolate then vanilla and new immediately that they would need to be jazzed up a little to make them tolerable.

My favourite for the vanilla was sugar free orange drink crystals with a bit of coconut extract and blended for about 30 seconds...tasted like an orange creamsicle. Another good vanilla option was s-f pineapple drink crystals and a bit of the coconut extract.

Chocolate was definitely better, and I noticed that the chocolate was a little thicker than the vanilla, not sure if anyone else experienced that. I liked the thickness/consistency of the chocolate way better. My favourite recipes for chocolate was a teaspoon of decaf instant coffee a shot of raspberry extract and a 30 second blend and POOF, raspberry café latte-esque awesomeness. My next fave chocolate recipe was a bit of mint and coconut extract and a teaspoon of decaf instant coffee and it was like an After Eight mint coffee drink.

Another thing I learned later into my 3 week optifast pre surgery diet was that if you added a half a teaspoon of cocoa powder to the vanilla it was quite similar to the chocolate one. My last week I had only vanilla left, so I added the half teaspoon of cocoa powder to each shake and the vanilla actually became enjoyable.

One thing that I found a little difficult to tolerate was the aftertaste, perhaps it was the high levels of protein, but there's a definite aftertaste. What I found most helpful for that was to add the decaf instant coffee. The coffee pretty much took away the strength of the aftertaste...but it also left more of that coffee aftertaste, which some people may find just as offensive.

In a nutshell, you will want to purchase a lot of those extracts, sugar free drink crystals, the squirty drink things work well too. When I ran out of raspberry extract, I found that the Nesfruita raspberry squirt flavouring was just as good. If you're into coffee, then I would highly recommend the decaf instant coffee as well.

I'm now 5 days post op and I'm enjoying experimenting with the post op liquid diet...after 3 weeks of the optifast, a 1/4 cup of ice cold tomato juice never tasted so good, however, I'm honestly missing the ease of the optifast shakes.

Best of luck!!! :) 

try using less water to make pudding..I am on day 3 of 7 and finding it more tolerable this way