My Second Month in D.C.

Wow, has it already been two months since I moved to Washington, D.C.?

I generally feel like I have settled in well and gotten into a good routine here. Waking up and doing yoga, walking to and from work, running or going to the gym after work (and still getting home by 7!!). I’ve got my go-to grocery store and gluten-free bakery, tried out a new hair salon today and have a whole list of recommendations for other service providers from colleagues (doctors, dentist, nail salon, etc). I took my first trip to the suburbs with my friend Jay to go shopping (and have dinner at Chili’s!) and I got my first taste of driving in DC traffic when I had to rent a car to drive to West Virginia for a work meeting.

My half marathon training has been great in terms of getting to know the best places to run in the city and keeping me on a good workout schedule. I can feel myself getting stronger from all of the hill running (it’s basically impossible to run here without part of it being uphill). Long runs with my running group have taken me around Capitol Hill, along the Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia and throughout Rock Creek Park. On the downside, I haven’t connected with as many others in the group as I hoped I would. I think this in part because I just do better meeting people one-on-one than in a group setting – especially when most others in the group already know each other well, which is the case here. But there’s still time…

I got a FitBit Flex at the beginning of February and I have to admit I am mildly obsessed. I use it to track everything – my steps, my workouts, my sleep and all of my food intake. I have dropped five pounds since I got it, which brings me to 11 total pounds lost since I moved here! It isn’t just the extra walking – the FitBit keeps me honest with respect to what I eat, especially in comparison to how many calories I’ve burned off. And while I am still not cooking as much as I pledged to back in January (I just don’t enjoy it, sorry!), I am eating better by avoiding most processed foods and not bingeing when I am stressed (which is easy since I really haven’t felt stressed). The big challenge now will be to keep this weight off and keep going – I have basically lost and re-gained the same 10 pounds since returning from my career break and my goal is to get back to where I was before I left in 2011. Which means I have another 10 pounds to go to reach my happy weight.

On the social front, I went on two (!!) dates this month. Sure, they were both with the same guy I met on OKCupid. And sure, I knew after the first 30 seconds of the first date that it wasn’t likely to go anywhere, but it is at least a start. While I have been trying my hand with online dating sites/apps like OKCupid and Hinge, I really need to push myself to get out more to meet men in person – I have always preferred that! I also went to a Big Ten alumni happy hour (by myself!) and talked to a number of people, but they were all much younger (like early twenties) and no contact info was exchanged. On my to-do list for March is to get out to some Iowa alumni events and to work on connecting with some more of the people I already know here but haven’t met up with yet.

Finally, I have mostly failed at my mission to get out and explore the city. All I managed during February was a visit to the Newseum (on date number two with the guy mentioned above) and a trip to the National Zoo last weekend to catch a glimpse of Bei Bei, the baby panda. I’ll leave you with that little bit of adorableness…