Flavored Optifast

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Mint chocolate chip flavored Optifast

I enjoy having variety of flavors in my diet, so when I started the Optifast program I explored lots of flavor combinations. When I have a craving for a specific treat, I try to recreate it as an Optifast shake. And it has worked to satisfy all my sweets cravings so far. It has kept me from feeling deprived and has helped to keep up my motivation to stay on the product.

What types of flavorings work well? It depends on your personal preferences and the flavor of product you chose.

Here are a few recommendations. Some are based off of recommendations from Optifast and some are based off of my own experiments. I prefer those made with Torani syrups and LorAnn Oils but there are a lot of options out there. I haven’t tried any of the nut versions, since I am very allergic to tree nuts, but I have included them here for completeness.

The printable recipe can be found at the bottom of the post.

Amount of extract to use based on Optifast product type

For those using concentrated flavors, use 2-3 drops for 1/8 tsp and 4-6 drops for 1/2 tsp – and vice versa.

Flavoring ExtractVanilla OptifastChocolate OptifastStrawberry Optifast
Almond1/8 tsp1/8 tsp1/2 tsp
Anise1 drop1/8 tsp1/8 tsp
Banana or banana cream1/8 tsp1/4 tsp1/4 tsp
Bavarian cream4-6 drops4-6 drops
Brandy1/8 tsp1/8 tsp1/4 tsp
Cheesecake or cream cheese4-6 drops4-6 drops
Caramel4-6 drops4-6 drops
Cherry1/2 tsp1/4 tsp1/2 tsp
Chocolate1/2 tsp1/8 tsp1/8 tsp
Cinnamon Spice or cinnamon roll4-6 drops4-6 drops
Coconut1/8 tsp1/8 tsp1/4 tsp
Cookies and cream4-6 drops4-6 drops
Eggnog4-6 drops
Key Lime4-6 drops
Kona Coffee4-6 drops
Maple1/8 tsp
Mint Chocolate Chip4-6 drops4-6 drops
Orange or orange cream1/8 tsp1/8 tsp1/8 tsp
Peppermint4 drops4 drops
Root beer1/8 tsp
Rum or Butter rum1/8 tsp1/8 tsp1/2 tsp
Strawberry (or other berry flavor)1/2 tsp1/4 tsp
Tangerine4-6 drops4-6 drops
Vanilla1/8 tsp1/4 tsp
Hack: I put my extracts in glass dropper bottles – just like my concentrated flavorings. It makes it much easier to work with.

Flavored Optifast Shakes

Jazz up your Optifast shakes by adding flavorings
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Equipment

  • Shaker or blender

Ingredients
  

  • 6-10 Ounces Water very cold is preferred
  • 1 Packet Optifast powder
  • 4-6 drops concentrated flavoring or, 1/8 – 1/2 tsp of flavoring extract
  • 1/2 tsp noncaloric sweetener adjust to taste
  • 1-2 Tbsp sugar-free flavoring syrup optional, substitute for extract and sweetener
  • 1/2-1 cup ice optional

Instructions
 

  • Pour water into blender or shaker bottle.
  • Add flavoring and sweetener to taste.
  • Add Optifast product.
  • Add ice if you are making the blended option.
  • Shake or blend until product is well dissolved and mixed through.
  • Serve and garnish as desired. Recommendation for non-blended option: Serve over ice.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

My Favorite no-calorie sweeteners

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Optifast brûlée made with allulose

I have the biggest sweet tooth, but I don’t want the added calories that real sugar will add to my diet. So, I have been exploring new sweeteners to satisfy my sweet tooth, while avoiding the aftertaste associated with some of the more common brands. Here are a few of my favorites – so far.

Sucralose (Splenda)

I really like the Torani sugar free syrups. You can buy them at Cost Plus or online at the Lollicup Store. They are an easy way to add sweetness and flavor to my morning coffee. There is also a “simple-syrup” version, just called sugar-free sweetener. I looked at the label and saw that it is sweetened with sucralose, which is the same thing as Splenda. I have been using the Torani sugar-free sweetener a lot with my LorAnn Oils flavorings to make some fun concoctions. So I guess you would say that the primary sugar substitute I have been using is Splenda.

Allulose

I recently learned that allulose can brown like sugar. I was surprised to find that it can even brûlée to some degree. I am trying out these two I recently bought on Amazon: a syrup version and a powdered version. So far they have been delicious. I haven’t noticed any aftertaste at all in the recipes I have tried. The image at the top of this post shows an Optifast brûlée I made for dessert last night. Yum.

Others

Here are a few sweeteners that have been recommended by friends, readers, and members of the Optifast community.

  1. Stevia- a lot of people have been recommending this. I haven’t had stevia by itself in a long time but I purchased some to try again.
  2. Sugar Twin
  3. SteviaSweet – Australian version
  4. Skinny syrups

So this is the short list. I want to add to it but I need your help. What are your favorite sugar-free sweeteners? Let me know on Instagram, Facebook, or in the comments below.

Food serving sizes

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As my class is preparing for transition to self prepared food, it is important to understand what constitutes a serving size. I recreated the serving size worksheet I received from Kaiser Permanente so that I can add to it as I try new foods.

Here is the serving size sheet; if you want a pdf you can download it here.

Serving Sizes – Page 1
Serving sizes – Page 2

Additionally, one of the admins of the Optifast Transitional Phase Support Group on Facebook posted these helpful guides. They are reposted here with her permission. (Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.)

Handy Guide to Serving Sizes

Handy Guide to Serving Sizes

Optifast food log

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For the past 12 weeks, I have been doing Optifast in what is called the intensive phase. In the US this means I consume 5 160 calorie Optifast products each day in place of my regular meals. I found logging my food to be very important in making sure I ate the proper number of calories.

I recreated the file that Kaiser gave me to log my meals so I could easily print up new versions. Here is my version of Kaiser Permanente’s Optifast food log. You can get the PDF version here and the docx file here.

Optifast planner for intensive phase.

Next week I start the transition phase. I found the files above so helpful that I decided to make a planner pages for the transition phase.

Transition Week One

Here is my version of transition week 1. The pdf version is here and the docx version is here.

Optifast planner for transition week 1.

I will updated this post as I proceed through the 4 weeks of transition. I hope you find it helpful.

Transition Week Two

Here is my version of transition week 2. You can get the pdf version here and the word document here.

Optifast planner for transition week 2.

Transition Week Three

Here is my version of transition week 3. You can get the pdf version here and the word document here.

Optifast planner for transition week 3

Transition Week Four

Here is my version of transition week 4. You can get the pdf version here and the word document here.

Optifast planner for final transition week.

Thicken your shakes and puddings with Xanthan Gum gel

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When you make shakes or puddings do they ever turn out too thin? Xanthan gum is a great thickener that adds only a trivial amount of calories in small quantities.

Xanthan gum nutrition facts.

The only problem is that it is really easy to add too much. It also thickens so fast that unless you are using a blender you might end up with something lumpy. The solution? Turn blend some up with water to make a gel that you can keep in your fridge. Then, you can mix up the gel with your product whenever you want a little more thickness.

My daughter taught me this and it works great.

Xanthan gum gel

Print Recipe
Servings 32
Calories 1 kcal

Equipment

  • blender

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Measure 2 cups of water into a blender container.
  • Add 1 tablespoon of xanthan gum.
  • Blend until smooth and thickened.
  • Store in a covered container in the fridge. Add 1TBSP to anything you want to thicken.

Nutrition

Serving: 1TBSPCalories: 1kcalCarbohydrates: 0.2gSodium: 2mgFiber: 0.2g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

How to make an Optifast latte

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My favorite way to consume Optifast is in my morning latte.

Basic Optifast Latte

This instructions show you the basic steps for using Optifast to make yourself a latte.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 5 mins
Course Breakfast, Coffee, Drinks
Cuisine Optifast
Servings 1 Serving
Calories 160 kcal

Equipment

  • Coffee Maker
  • Blender bottle or Milk Frother

Ingredients
  

  • 12 ounces Coffee I use my Keurig, but any brewed coffee will work.
  • 4 ounces water I prefer warm water. Adjust the temperature of your water so your final latte will be of the desired temperature.
  • 1 packet Vanilla Optifast Some people also use Chocolate Optifast. You could also use other meal replacement shakes if you'd prefer.
  • 2 Pumps Sugar Free Syrup Any flavor. I like Torani. You can also use extracts if you don't want the extra sweetness.

Instructions
 

Step 1: Brew your coffee.

Step 2: Make your Optifast creamer.

  • Put 4 ounces of warm water in a blender bottle (or measuring glass if using the frother.)
  • Add Vanilla Optifast to the water.
  • Add 2 pumps of your favorite sugar free syrup to the blender bottle. Torani sugar free syrups are easy to use and delicious.
  • For additional flavor or less sweetness you can also use unsweetened flavorings, like extracts of flavor concentrates. I like Lorann oils brand, Penzeys spices, and Nielsen-Massey the best.
  • I keep my flavorings in dropper bottles to make it easier to control the amounts.

Step 4: Add the "creamer" to your coffee.

Step 4: Feel free to top your latte to make it more enjoyable.

  • Sometimes I like to top my lattes with fat free Ready Wip.
  • With or without the Ready Wip, spices like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice really jazz up your latte without adding any sugar or calories. I also sometimes use sugar free sprinkles.

Enjoy, but don't forget to add your latte to your food journal.

  • Make sure to add your latte to food log, so you can track what you are eating.

Nutrition

Serving: 16ouncesCalories: 160kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 16gFat: 3.5gSaturated Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 300mgPotassium: 720mgFiber: 3gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 7200IUVitamin C: 18mgCalcium: 260mgIron: 3.6mg
Keyword Optifast Latte
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

The real you

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Today I was doing a live ride with Jess King via the Peloton app. She said something that really spoke to me. “The real you can do anything you decide to do.” That is powerful it made me reflect on my progress over the past few months. She is right. I decided I was going to become more healthy, and I am really starting to make a lot of progress.

I posted the following on Instagram in response and I thought I’d add it here.

“A year ago I could barely walk up the stairs and I was in and out of the hospital.

6 months ago I could do barely 5 minutes on my recumbent bike.

Now I am stacking multiple workouts on the #pelotonapp to help me achieve my fitness goals. It amazing to me how fast things change when you decide to make your health a priority.”

Motivational Saying
“The real you can do anything you decide to” – Jess King

The details of the health issues I had at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 are a story for another time. The following is the short version: a blood transfusion saved my life, an iron infusion nearly killed did me in, and several rounds of Prednisone helped my breathing but did a number on my already too high weight. I finally got my asthma back under control towards the end of 2020 but my Fibromyalgia was flared up and I was in a ton of pain. After a lot of self reflection I decided the best way to make sure I never had another year like the one I just lived through would be to get in shape.

Over the summer I bought a recumbent bike. At that point it really hit home how much my health had deteriorated. After a 5 minute ride on the lowest resistance I had to take a nap. I didn’t want to live like that anymore. I signed myself up for a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) weight loss program through Kaiser and committed to spending at least 5 minutes a day riding the bike on at least 3 days a week. I followed through that plan gradually increasing the lengths of my rides. In October 2020 I felt ready for a bigger challenge. I really wanted to buy a Peloton bike but there were two barriers: 1. the price and 2. the wait time before I would have the bike. So we bought a Echelon EX3 and I signed up for the Peloton app. I did my first ride on October 12, 2o2o.

At the beginning of November 2020, I started on the VLCD diet. As part of that program I have been consuming 5 160 calorie products a day. Yes, that is a total of 800 calories. I thought I would be very hungry all the time or very weak. The truth is my energy is higher than it has been in years and I am not hungry very often at all. On many days I am burning more calories through exercise than I consume. My energy levels have stayed high as long as I am well hydrated. On the few days I have felt dizzy or weak, I felt better after drinking a Gatorade Zero or a Smart Water. My sodium and potassium levels tend to be on the lower end of normal lately, so I just need to keep my electrolytes up and I feel great.

What impresses me is the amount of workout I am able to complete each day. I find the workouts energizing rather than exhausting. I have progressed far beyond my goal of 5 minutes a day, 3 days a week. My new goal is 60 minutes a day for 5 days a week. I recently added strength training to my workout routine and I am excited to where this will take me next.

So where do I plan to go from here. Our program facilitator for the VLCD program at Kaiser has suggested that blogging helps some people stay on track, so I would like to continue to document my progress in this way. I am getting ready to transition to regular food in a couple of weeks so I am thinking about posting recipes for that. My daughter has some cool hacks to make fun, low-calorie recipes, I may include. In the past 11 weeks, I have been making fun flavor combinations for my Optifast products and posting them on Instagram and Facebook. I am thinking about including some of those recipes to share with others doing the Optifast program. Mostly, I am going to keep trying to get healthy and I hope that my progress will help others believe in themselves to. Remember, “The real you can do anything you decide to do.”

Progress

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I believe a blog is a great way to share things I care about. Since my last post a lot has been going on.

  • I finished my MS in Mathematics. Gig ’em Aggies.
  • The pandemic hit and I became a temporary online teacher.
  • I started a YouTube channel over the summer, http://mathquarium.org. I am committed to making that a great resource but I have to be reasonable. It is difficult to update in the school year due to my other responsibilities. It will happen, but it might be a slow process.
  • I bought a Echelon spin bike and started exercising using the Peloton app.
  • I started a weight loss program through Kaiser. The image below is my progress after 7 weeks.  I am 12 weeks in now and I have lost nearly 50 pounds.  I thought that this blog might be a good place to share my progress.

Weight loss after 7 weeks.

I noticed that when getting in shape one of the best things is support.  You need to be able to deal with the issues that caused you to get where you were in the first place. So, some of the people in my weight loss group decided to follow each other on Instagram.

I started posting tips, tricks, and motivation to my Instagram account. But, when I go back to try to find things I posted it’s not always easy. Then I remembered this blog I had started ages ago. It is a perfect vehicle to document my continued progress.  The facilitator of my class also says that it can be helpful to blog your progress.

So, this is me. I am back at the blog and hoping to just use this to journal what is important to me at the time.

I hope you have an amazing day.

Note-taking strategies

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With back to school around the corner, I was thinking about what students might need to be successful in the new school year.  That got me to thinking about my own note-taking styles and how to make the process more enjoyable for the students. Well, …

JetPens, one of my favorite sites, has a great post detailing note-taking strategies. Here is a link to the blog post: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/note-taking-strategies-for-students/pt/661

They also made a related video that could be helpful for those who prefer that format.

New Pens

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I just received some new pens in the mail. I am excited to open the box and see how they work.

The price was a bargain and the reviews were good. I hope they live up to the hype.

Update:  So far, I am loving them.  My review is coming up soon. Here are the links if you are interested in purchasing some of your own.

You can link to the Jinhao Shark series here:

Here is a link to the Wing Sung 3008 fountain pens.

And, here is one to the Wing Sung 3009.