When I was in my early 40s, I moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to be an assistant manager with Kinko's Copies. Before I could report for work I got a heart problem and had angioplasty on two arteries. The doctor put me on an all liquid diet called Medifast. I drank shakes made with water and powder for my three meals. The only variance was a cup of beef consume and a dill pickle.(Still don't know why I got the pickle.) The pickle was the highlight of the day since it was something to chew. I attended a group meeting every Saturday where people would talk about their experiences, new products, and recipes.(yep, recipes) You see, you could make cookies with the powder and flavor them with various extracts. I never could get the hang of the cookies. Mine looked like flat bird turds. Shasta diet soft drinks were a big thing. They came in so many flavors. Some like black forest cherry, chocolate milk, orange sherbert, etc. You were warned never get off the diet. It was so severe that there was a two week period at the end to adjust to normal food. Well, I couldn't live on shakes and pickles alone. I cheated one time. You see, there was this burger place in town, Big Momma's, that made the best hamburgers I've ever had,,,and I broke. I brought home a burger and fries one night and gorged myself. A few hours later, I paid for it. I got soooo sick. It's the worst I'd felt in my life up to then. Was if worth it? I think so. It made me stay on the diet. I lost sixty pounds in four weeks, but needed to lose another forty. But, I got fired from the job and with no insurance, couldn't continue it. I gained the weight back and more. With that experience, I vowed I'd never go in a liquid diet again.