I am pretty excited about Rosie getting on the plant-based diet bandwagon, even if I am sorry it took a major heart attack to get her there. I’ve always loved her and and I am willing to fight anyone who says there ever has been or ever will be a better live action Betty Rubble. I’m not often moved to violence, but a passionate guy like myself can only take so much.

She and I have a lot in common. I could relate to almost every honest thing she ever shared about her eating habits. Many, many years ago Rosie told her audience that on long trips she would stop at a Waffle House for a regular sized meal. Then she would repeat the Waffle House meal at several interstate exits in a row rather than ordering all 15 of the waffles she really wanted at once. I was guilty of a similar sickness with fast food joints back then and hearing that someone else acted the same way made it easier to look at my actions and examine the problem more carefully.

Now that she is taking the plant-based plunge I have a really good idea of what she is going through. Her change was motivated by fear, like mine. There is still going to be some cravings to fight through and some re-education that will take place, but I am excited for her on this journey because I know what it will feel like for her on the other side. I am excited that she is on the journey because of where it will take her.

My own herbiversary is only a month and a half away and I am loving life. This morning I enjoyed my third green smoothie in three days as part of the impromptu “10 Day Green Smoothie Challenge” that was nonchalantly mentioned by the RA Vegan this weekend. I was browsing my vegan Facebook Likes Saturday evening and saw on her page that she was chugging at least one green smoothie a day for ten days. Challenge accepted!

In the last eleven months I have become a smoothie lover. Usually, I don’t feel like eating any breakfast at all, much less a pile of kale and fruit drenched in almond milk. Don’t ask me to explain the magic but somehow, blending all of that into liquid with a Magic Bullet makes it taste like an easily chug-able sweet milkshake. Once I learned how to get the really fresh, raw food down in the morning I started benefiting from the blast-off energy every day.

For a while I blended berries and melon in my smoothies, but in the last few weeks I’ve started adding the previously unthinkable: carrots with kale or spinach. This miracle breakfast is as green as a new-mowed lawn but tastes like an all fruit smoothie. If you dislike the green leaf-ies but know how important it is to choke them down, then this could be the trick for you… AND if you’ve never had them first thing in the morning, I highly recommend it. Remember Popeye eating his spinach? His reaction was not a hyperbole. Right after breakfast my own arms quadruple in size and my fists turn into anchors or anvils depending on how Bluto has pissed me off. It makes driving difficult but it feels GREAT!

Pro tip: blend a date, fig, or a prune in the mix. The sweetness factor goes up a few levels AND it is one more hidden super-food in an already spectacular breakfast.

Breakfast eleven months ago consisted of one or two quarter pound sausages, coffee with Splenda and half-n-half, and a hunk of cheese. Eleven months later I am chugging green smoothies and loving it. Do you hear that Rosie? I am here if you need me. We can our eat our way to another 50 years on Earth if we do it right. This is exactly what second chances are for…

…and welcome to the revolution.