I've decided to stick with this plan for a while, much more than six weeks. I hate to admit it, but I think I've been stalled by my large fat consumption and my devotion to vegetables. Vodka and red wine weren't helping either, even though I've kept my carbs very low. I've been stuck and wandering aimlessly for about a year; this plan looks more promising than switching to another lc plan. I haven't felt like cooking much lately anyway.
So I bought a lot of flavorings for all these shakes. I decided not to go with syrups, though. Extracts make more sense to me. They take less space, I can control the sweetness better, and shipping costs less.
I bought several of the Lorann Flavor Fountain extracts (all Lorann products are gluten-free). They're designed for flavoring shakes and ice cream specifically, so maybe they'll somehow taste better. The source I chose:
http://www.barryfarm.com/beverageflavors.htm (scroll down)
I also bought a lot of baking extracts and flavor powders from the same place (all Spicery Shoppe is gluten free):
http://www.barryfarm.com/flavorings.htm
This place had the best prices on egg protein powder, much lower than their competitors:
http://www.supplementwarehouse.com/
They also have a low price on leutine.
I'll let you know how these things turn out.
Using soft drinks must be the very most expensive way to flavor these things. You also end up with double sweetness unless you start with unsweetened protein powder. Or triple sweetness if you use d-ribose.
I'm thinking that I'll try using up some of the old herbal teas in the cupboard. I just need to remember to steep one in advance. I don't know whether that'll taste good or not.