Why Raw Foods?

I have to credit my good friend Shira for introducing me to the raw foods lifestyle. I also have to be honest and say I thought it was completely crazy. But it piqued my curiosity so I started reading about it online and the philosophy made sense to me - basically, cooking kills a lot of the nutrients in food, so it's healthier to eat them raw. Some of the benefits widely reported are:

-weight loss (neither of us are overweight but losing a few couldn't hurt either)
-clear skin (something I've been after my whole life)
-increased energy and mental awareness (I'm chronically foggy at work, but who knows, that could be the result of sitting in a cube all day)

The decision to do this experiment came after a rough winter and a weeklong cruise eating and drinking way more than we're used to. I felt in need of a detox so proposed this to Nathan and was absolutely surprised and delighted that he agreed to go along. Also since it's the middle of winter and we're bored and figured it'd give us something interesting to do together.

We're planning to start the 30 days "for real" once the dehydrator we ordered gets delivered, Nathan will post in depth about the gadgets commonly used in raw food prep. In the meantime, we're transitioning by trying out some easy raw food recipes, coming up next....