Nik’s Butterfinger Protein Shake

I had no idea when I developed this shake recipe that people loved Butterfinger so much. But you guys really, really do. Whenever I ask what shake folks like best from theBariatric Foodie Guide to Perfect Protein Shakes, folks always say, “The Butterfinger!”

My guess is that candy is something we miss post-op. I don’t know about you but I can’t do full-on sugar that well. I mean after a few years I could…but it always does one of three things:

1. It makes me dump. For folks who have had gastric bypass (and other surgeries, according to my Foodies on Facebook) dumping syndrome is always a risk. I could get into the specifics of what this is but instead I’ll just tell you what it feels like to me. Imagine a blood sugar crash x 100 along with a side of vertigo. Yeah. Not pleasant!
2. If it doesn’t make me dump, it makes me feel weird. Somewhere around year three post-op (as I write I am 7.5 years post) I somehow discovered some evil information. It happened when I decided to try a piece of barbecue chicken. Up til then, regular barbecue sauce hated me (and I hated low-sugar barbecue sauce!) so I avoided it. But I decided to give it a try. Ate it. Went down fine. My hypothesis (because I was deluding myself into thinking my endeavors were scientific) was that if I paired real sugar with protein they worked better. So what do you do in science? You experiment! Yeah. Bad information to have. Foodies: consider if you really want to know if sugar makes you sick or if the belief is good enough. Anyhoo…while sugar + protein prevents me from dumping, I always feel phenomenally weird for a long time after eating it.
3. My skin breaks out. Horribly! Yep…I’ll admit it. I’ve gone on benders over the years. To me, it’s not so much about being perfect on this journey as it is about being able to pull yourself back off the ledge. I’ve done it many times. I could teach a class on it. Ledge-pulling-offing 101. Yeah. Anyhoo…when I did go on a bender I noticed my skin suffered. I broke out in really bad pimples that only a clean diet seemed to fix. Oddly enough vanity is enough to set me straight. #NarcissisticComplex #DontJudgeMe

Anyway, I don’t eat a lot of candy now. It’s taken me years to realize this but I don’t like feeling crappy and no matter what candy will. Make. Me. Feel Crappy. So this protein shake is a nice indulgence.

I realize the world has changed since I developed this recipe. For newer folks, believe it or not, there was a time when everyone was all about Splenda! So all my recipes have Splenda! This is the #1 negative comment on my Amazon reviews. Look…I blog my truth. I wrote this book in 2009 when we were all Splenda crackheads. By all means…use Stevia instead! So that is to say that you know our motto around here…play with your food! If an ingredient doesn’t work for you, change it! If you don’t know if changing it will work, ask!