Grapefruit Oatmeal

Remember nearly three weeks ago, when I had the audacity to christen myself "Lauren the Runner?" Yeah, well, I spoke too soon.

The week that I wrote that post, I went running every other day, and I loved almost every minute of it. I felt great, motivated, and eager to move.

The next two weeks, I felt the exact opposite. What happened?

I've come to realize that there is, in fact, a direct correlation between the weather and my motivation. Back in January, I stuck to my New Year's resolution...until the temperature suddenly dove below 10 degrees and the clouds dumped a foot of snow over everything. Suddenly, my mood plummeted, and all I wanted to do was sulk around the apartment.

Around mid-February, the weather was consistently hanging around between 20-40 degrees, and the snow was almost entirely melted. Out of nowhere, I willingly hauled myself to the wellness center and ran a full two miles for the first time ever. Then I did it again two days later. The rest of the week, I consistently kept running.

Until the next week, when we had a mini-blizzard on Monday afternoon. I dragged myself to the wellness center on Tuesday night, but I've yet to go back since. During this length of time, we have experienced a drop in temperatures, fierce winds, and several snowfalls.

And don't even get me started on this week's major blizzard. Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to call it an ice storm.

Ice, ice, ice, and more ice

All of this evidence supports my belief that I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I have actually had a rather pleasant winter this year, due to the fact that we have had little precipitation and only one or two days when the temperature dropped below zero. Last year, during a string of nasty blizzards and a consistent negative temperature, I remember dragging my feet everywhere, feeling hopeless and desolate, and even crying at the thought of getting out of bed and physically transporting myself to class. If I didn't love school so much, it's possible that I wouldn't have gone at all.

I haven't had to deal with that this year, luckily, but I'm still seeing it impact my motivation for exercising.

So what's a girl to do when it's snowing and the wind is howling? Try a new oatmeal recipe, of course!

I first stumbled upon a recipe for grapefruit oatmeal on Pinterest (imagine that!), and I was initially skeptical. I have never used citrus in my oatmeal before, and I had a hard time imagining how those segments of bitter juice would mesh with an earthy bowl of porridge.

Well, I'm here to tell you that they mesh beautifully. Even more impressively, after I dropped the segments in and stirred, they broke into their tiny, individual pockets of juice, which resulted in every spoonful having an equal dose of grapefruit!

Although I got the idea from Pinterest, I made up the recipe on the spot. Here's what I did:

1. Begin cooking the oatmeal like you normally would. For me, this means cooking a 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats and a tablespoon of milled flax in one cup of half-water, half-almond milk at a low boil. For this particular recipe, I would also recommend coconut milk!

2. Spoon/cut out the segments from half a grapefruit and drop in the oatmeal. Stir, stir, stir!

3. When the oatmeal is closer to your desired consistency, add a pinch of ground nutmeg and a shake of cinnamon.

4. When the oatmeal is ready, serve topped with shredded coconut and another splash of almond/coconut milk. Enjoy!

If you're interested, here's another method of preparing grapefruit oatmeal, using the actual grapefruit as the bowl!

**You can check out my other oatmeal recipes here, or by clicking the oatmeal tag. You can also find dozens of other oatmeal recipes on my Pinterest board (along with tons of other meatless recipes!). Thanks!