Yo DaVIta!!!!!!!!!!!!

NINE IN NINETY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well actually our core value of integrity demands that I reveal I only hit the 188 goal this morning, Monday. So it was nine in ninety-three!!

Technically that is a failure, I must admit. But it does not feel that way to me personally. I had been hovering at 189-190 for a week. This morning’s weigh-in was wearing the same clothes as all other official weigh-ins, and it was pre-breakfast and pre-workout, just like all the other weigh-ins.  In fact, I worked out after the weigh-in which was a small 25 minute workout on the lifecycle, and I weighed 186 after that, which shows I was within the normal range of hydration. Today was another day when I could go to that 4th belt hole, but it is just a little too tight. Remember I started in the second belt hole.

So, a number of thoughts and feelings…

First, THANK YOU TO THE 568, YOU ALL ROCK!  I can say without any qualification that I would not have hit this number in this period without being a part of the Village Vitality team that we became. I was inspired by what so many of you have done and are doing, and also did not want to let the team down. Your honesty and energy was so positive for me, and I bet for others.

Second, I LOVE THE FACT THAT MORE EXERCISE WAS A PART OF THE SUCCESS for me and for so many of you. While I have exercised 75% of the days for years, I ramped up the intensity over this 90 day period. This was reflected in my achieving new personal best’ in many of my regimens, including the classic Old La Honda Biking Hill, the dreaded Windy Hill Mountain Biking Hill, and the venerable Oak Campground Loop up in the mountains. Once I get my surgery on my torn MCL, I look forward to being able to broaden my exercise once more, to include more running, yoga, tennis, etc…

Third, LET’S MAINTAIN THE GAIN! Gain in health that is. I will report in for another two weeks, and I would like you to also. That way we can see if we have created new habits to sustain the gain. Just to report in I had a good weekend except I allowed myself a totally decadent Sunday dinner with my daughter — our first dinner with her since she started college. We took her to the restaurant my dad took me to when I was a freshman. She and I both had big steaks and creamed spinach. But other than this dinner  every other  meal this weekend was either reasonable or better, and the exercise was big.

Fourth, how about each of you who have not done so report in your accomplishments? The wonderful Mary Kay Gilhooly who has helped me with this journal will total up the number of people who did achieve all or some of their goals over the last 90/93 days. She will total up the specific items like pounds lost, cigarettes not smoked and the increased number of days of exercise.

I am feeling like I am personally on the path to good health. As some of you know, the last twenty-three months have included a herniated disc (for which I had eighty-three different healthcare appointments with nine different doctors and therapists). My Achilles tendons were so messed up I could not walk normally for eight weeks, a stingray sting that put enough toxin in my foot that I could not even bend it normally for twelve weeks, two rotator cuff issues that meant I could not throw a ball overhand or do push-ups, and the torn MCL. While many of you have faced far bigger challenges, I must admit I was periodically bummed out at the series of injuries getting in the way of a healthier life.

I also feel so lucky to have my job at DaVita rather than be CEO somewhere else. One of the primary reasons DaVita is a great place for me and my family is because of how wonderful so many of you are. I don’t get to spend much time with very many of you  but I get to hear the stories and see the results, and I do get to interact with quite a few — if you count all my Academies I have spent time with over 20,000 DaVita teammates.

One for All & All for One. Not just a slogan to some of us.

KT, Your Mayor

Be mindful of your thoughts, for they become your words.

Be mindful of your words, for they become your actions

Be mindful of your actions, for they become your habits

Be mindful of your habits, for they become your destiny.

Yo DaVitans!

Special Yo to the 583 who have banded together in this partnership for healthier living!

It is Friday morning and the 90 days ends today. I am not at home, and have not been for a couple days, so I don’t know where I stand. I will find out tomorrow or Sunday morning!

It has been a wonderful week. On Wednesday night I attended the Justice League’s annual Award Dinner (the Justice League is our Legal Department). They are a wonderful team, built by Joe Schohl our General Counsel and his team, and they honored some of their teammates as well as the Mission and Core Values of our fair Village in beautiful ways.

There were about 70 of them there, and over the course of the four hours I was able to mingle with almost everyone. I believe it is important for as many teammates as possible to get an opportunity to ask the Mayor a question, or to tell him/her something … so I try hard to have good conversations but at the same time keep moving around.

I did some email and called home when I got up to my room, so it was a bit after midnight when I turned off the light in the hotel. We were in Colorado for this event.

On Wednesday my breakfast, lunch and dinner were all healthy. I probably had a little more wine than I should have within the context of this diet and the imminent deadline, but nothing decadent.

Thursday started with a healthy 7:30 a.m. breakfast with five of the senior attorneys in the Justice League. We had a great conversation on important Justice League and company issues for 75 minutes. Then I scooted 30 minutes to the airport to fly to Las Vegas, with Dennis Kogod (a senior vice president who runs a bunch of the company) and I in the same car so we both listened to voicemails without talking so we could both get good work done. On the flight he and I went over a long list of issues, it was nice to have quiet time together.

Once I landed it was a 30 minute drive to the hotel outside Las Vegas — the primary reason we have meetings in this city is that there are lots of cheap air fares from almost everywhere in the United States, and there are lots of reasonably priced hotels. For this meeting of 80 of the top field executives, we were staying 30 minutes outside the city in order to get low rates in a quiet setting, and be far away from the big casinos so no one would stay out too late! I did phone work in the car and then had a series of meetings throughout the afternoon, including an interview with a potential executive. We had him prepare a case study of some work he had done for his current employer. He presented it to five of us, and we peppered him with questions and comments. Great sport! We are going to make him an offer, and he has become so impressed with everything he has heard and seen with the DaVita Village (he even attended half of an Academy) that he said he very much wants to join.

My lunch was healthy salmon and veggies, with a tiny bit of bread. Further good news is I snuck away between the last meeting and the dinner to get in a short but gratifying workout in the hotel gym.

I mingled with teammates for an hour. When they all started to move into the dining room to eat, I snuck into a side room where wonderful Marcia Benedict had a room service dinner sitting in a warming oven. This way I could wolf it down in five minutes and head to the airport. It was a healthy chicken and veggie dinner with wild rice — although the marinara sauce was a bit decadent for marinara sauce and I used every ounce of it!

Off to the airport I went to fly to Los Angeles, talking to my wife during the drive. How did we get by without cell phones? No other DaVita people were on the same flight so I got a lot of email done. Once I landed, I got 25 minutes of voicemail done in the car before I got to the hotel. I resisted all the room service urges, despite being hungry. I did email until midnight and then hit the sack.

I started this morning, Friday, with a 7 a.m. phone call about an acquisition we are working on. At 8 a.m. I spoke to a DWOL class (DaVita Way of Leading). These classes are great! This one had about 20 directors and vice-presidents. The class helps people become more self-aware as to how other people experience their leadership, as well as helping them think about what their personal vision for their workplace should be. I spent an hour with them, they gave me several good ideas and I hope I returned the favor. These classes are one of the most powerful and pure expressions of our dream of a special workplace, where teammates care for each other with as much intensity as they care for our patients.

After this meeting it was back into a car to head back to the airport to fly … home of all places!

On two of the days this week I actually went another belt hole forward — meaning a two hole change from where I started with my belt holes. But all the other days were still at the one hole change from the beginning of the Match the Mayor Campaign.

Once I land I will head home for several hours of phone calls, BUT I have reserved the time starting at 5 p.m. for a good workout before a dinner party at my house tonight. Then tomorrow or Sunday will be the big weigh-in! I will let you know, on Monday most likely. I will do DaVita work for about four hours tomorrow, and half of Sunday so I just don’t know if I will have time until Sunday or Monday night for a Match the Mayor missive.

It has been great fun to strive for better health with you! Many teammates are doing great things … for themselves! And others of course, as many of you know, I love the Buddhist quote “One cannot pour from an empty cup.” Keeping healthy is one way of keeping our cups reasonably full. And this campaign has been just another example about how we can help each other realize our full potential, and lead more Fun and fulfilling lives.

We will do some sort of summary announcement after the Campaign is over, so please let us know how you did and how you feel about our collective campaign. Should we do it again sometime?

As always, I am in awe that so many of you can do the demanding jobs you do and still be so kind to others. So please remember to take care of yourselves too!

This is not a dress rehearsal this is our lives! And remember, DaVita does dialysis, but it is not about dialysis. DaVita is about life. We don’t want to grow business leaders; we want to grow Life Leaders. If we do the business will do just fine. Our patients will do wonderfully. And we will have a true community. A Village.  No brag, just fact. We Said, We Did.

Forever New, Ours and it could be Special. If we make it so.

This is KT, from California … and I am going back to work. And I am working for you.

One for All & All for One.

KT.  Your Stunningly Flawed but Ever-Striving Mayor.  (He ain’t much, but he’s yours)

Yo DaVitans!

It is now Wednesday morning.

GOOD NEWS!

It appears the horrifying number that appeared on the scale after my road trip and reunion was a temporary spurt. The number this morning was 1.5 pounds from my 188 goal!

I started yesterday with work at my desk at 7:00 a.m. At 8:00 a.m. I was off to the Casa Del Norte, our office near the San Francisco airport where they kindly let me use the conference room for meetings. As usual I had a scheduled call for the car trip, this one with Ben Lipps the CEO of Fresenius. Once I got to the office, I had an interview with an author of a book who thought some DaVita stuff might be good to include. After that was a four hour meeting with the CEO and another executive from NxStage, the home hemodialysis equipment manufacturer.

In the midst of all that was a lunch of salmon and asparagus, with a little salad with a little dressing.

After the NxStage meeting, I reviewed budgets for Purchasing, Investor Relations, and a new budget for our Bundling Team, the group that will prepare us to deal with the bundling of our reimbursement system in 2011.

I hopped in the car and took care of a few calls and some voicemails on the way home. My 3:30 p.m. call was on a couple personnel issues, 4:00 p.m. was on a physician issue, 4:15 p.m. was a call on the DaVita Corporate Social Responsibility Report (which could be very very cool!), and then I tackled miscellaneous phone calls and emails until 7:30 p.m. At that point my wife was pretty intense about my starting my workout. I only got a short one in, 26 minutes on the lifecycle and a set of crunches and one minute of stretching.

After dinner I got to visit my daughter in college because she needed something from home. Denise gave me cupcakes to deliver also – anyway, she met me outside, took me into her dorm for my first look at her room, and when I turned to leave a couple minutes later, intent on not overstaying my welcome, she actually said “can’t you stay and talk for awhile?”  After I came down from the ceiling I sat and had a glorious 20 minutes of rambling conversation with my precious Bina and then drove cheerily home. She is happy, and learning!  (Whew …)

This morning I hit the office at 6:30 a.m. It is an out-of-body experience today, because a big meeting was cancelled at the last minute and so I actually have three unscheduled hours in a row!  I had my normal breakfast, and will workout in a little while. It is time for a good workout, let’s see if I deliver.

I hope you all are doing well!  I hope you are all benefiting from the posts of the rest of the team, as we march arm in arm towards our goals.

One for All,

KT

(Never is a good knife made from bad steel)

Yikes!

After a rough week on the road last week with restaurant dinners, meetings until midnight, and no exercise for three DAYS…. and my 30 year Stanford reunion over the weekend, with long evenings, social events, tailgates and other healthy activities….I emerged yesterday (Monday morning) 2.5 pounds away from the goal!!!  That’s right, actually a half pound worse than a week earlier. That was even though I got solid exercise on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

My only hope is that I can gain enough resolve from reading some of your entries to sprint to the finish line.

Yesterday I did well until dinner. I had a healthy breakfast, solid exercise and a healthy lunch with no bad snacks.  Dinner was with three old friends, and despite the fact that I ordered chicken and tomatoes, the meal came with potatoes gratin which were so amazingly good!  We sat up and talked for three hours, and I also had one glass of wine and one beer through the course of the meal and evening.

Today (Tuesday), I was in the office at 6:30 a.m., filled with resolve to do well throughout the day, including a strong workout before a late dinner. We shall see.

I hope all of you are doing well. I should mention that despite everything going on in the financial markets in the United States and the rest of the world, DaVita had been managing itself conservatively before any of this stuff started. Therefore, so far we have been virtually unaffected. More on that later.

One for All,

KT

Yo DaVitans!

It is Friday, and I am on a plane flying back to California.

This was a tough week, and I am worried about what the scale will show tomorrow. I am glad to see that many of you had good weeks!

On Monday night I did not get to my Washington D.C. hotel until 3:00 a.m., and got to bed 45 minutes later after responding to some urgent stuff. I had to get up at 8:00 a.m., so no workout on Tuesday.

Tuesday was a series of Public Policy G-Force planning sessions, with a healthy chicken and veggie lunch. Tuesday night was a strategy discussion with 15 vice presidents, which ended about 9 p.m. I weakened and had steak instead of fish or chicken, but stayed away from any dessert. From 9-10 p.m. I caught up with Joe Mello on a number of issues, from 10 to 11 I caught up with Cheryl my assistant, and from 11 p.m. – 12 a.m. I caught up with Javier Rodriguez, the SVP of Team Avanti. After that I went up to my room and cleaned up some email and urgent stuff and went to bed at about 1:30 a.m.

Wednesday started with a wake-up call at 6:30 a.m. so I could do some phone calls and then make a 9 a.m. meeting with our external D.C. advisors — which meant once again no exercise!  Lunch was healthy salmon and veggies, with a modest amount of unhealthy sauce. Wednesday afternoon was filled with the different Board of Directors Committee Meetings. Then I met with the full board until 7:15 p.m. Then we retired to a working dinner, which ended at 10 p.m. I would tell you about my healthy dinner if I had not ordered a cheeseburger at 11 p.m.!

Thursday started with Board stuff at 7:30 a.m., so once again no workout! I raced out of the Board meeting several hours later and flew to Orlando for the Academy. After the Academy I interviewed a potential executive and then boarded a plane to Nashville. Once in Nashville I had a pleasant mild working dinner with three other DaVitans. I ordered sea bass, but unfortunately it turned out to be a decadent butter laden dish which tasted great but wreaked havoc on my 9 in 90 Campaign! After dinner it was a 20 minute drive to the hotel, so I checked in about 11:00 p.m. I caught up on emails until midnight, and then did pleasure reading to mellow out until 1:00 a.m.

Which means no workout the next morning either, as my pick-up to go to Team Music City to do a Town Hall with the DWOM class (DaVita Way of Managing) was at 7:30 a.m. So 3.5 days in a row without a workout and my body is extremely angry with little old me! I have skipped breakfast the last three days, I hope that helps offset all the other calories from eating out every night and the lack of exercise. By the way it was a great DWOM class, they asked very good questions.

My 30th College Reunion is this weekend, so we will have many guests at our house and social events all weekend. Yikes!  (Yikes on two counts — first it is tougher to eat right and get lots of exercise, and second I am dead tired).

I would be giving up if it were not for all of my partners out there — thanks for your support!

One for All,

KT

Yo DaVita!

Okay, it is Monday, the 6^th and my journal rally continues …. by the way I weighed in at 190 again this morning 2 pounds to go, 12 days to go!

Last Thursday I got up and did a solid workout, then left the house at 8 a.m. to head up to the Casa Del Norte office. I had ham and shredded wheat for breakfast. It was a fun day as I moved from meetings on battles with payers trying to unilaterally reduce our rates, to a session on more frequent dialysis and our efforts to make that option available to more of our patients who would benefit, to a discussion of our negotiations with a big supplier, to a sequence of four meetings in a row reviewing proposed 2009 budgets for four areas. Lunch was salmon and green beans, and I snacked on fruit all day.

At 7:00 p.m. I had a dinner with two other executives, and we spent three hours going down a long list of issues. Most of the time was spent discussing individuals as we wrestled with professional development plans, promotion plans, strengths and weaknesses, etc. I had a salad and a wonderful veal chop, which was not bad, but I had to throw in some wine calories on top of that.

The next day I must admit I did not get up to workout. I slept in and did not leave for the office until 8 a.m. I had my normal breakfast.

Once in the office I had a conversation with the CEO of Nxstage, then a multi-hour compliance session where I was able to confirm that David Shapiro, our new Deputy Chief Compliance officer, is certainly one very smart guy. After that we had a meeting to discuss the new Village Star (coming soon to a team near you!), and then a meeting to go over our current recruiting results and plans.

Lunch was chicken with veggies, but the chicken had some fatty stuff in the middle which tasted great! The salad dressing was also very tasty, and no doubt very fatty. Anyway, after lunch I was off to a company called Varian. They are the leading manufacturer of radiation oncology machines in the world, truly amazing stuff. I sit on their Board of Directors and Chair their Nominating Committee, and we were interviewing potential new board members from Singapore and Japan.

Those sessions went until 7 p.m., and I must admit, I ate some bad snacks through the course of my time there, including a small slice of cheesecake. Really, it was small!

Adding injury to insult, Denise and I went out for Asian food, potstickers, spring rolls, curry dishes, etc. A very decadent day!

Saturday was a long work day, except for a haircut in the morning and an inside workout in the afternoon. I stuck with the inside workout so I could listen to voicemail while I was on the lifecycle, since I had a backlog of 90. I only had two live DaVita phone calls, the last one ending a little after 5 p.m. At 7 p.m. I called it a day and Denise and I had a nice night together at home, including sitting by our outside fireplace and sharing some wine. Okay okay, I also had a cookie. A big chocolate chip one that she warmed up for me — I did not want to turn it down and hurt her feelings!

On Sunday it was good that I saw some of your entries, as I did well. I started working about 8 a.m., and except for one 30 minute break, worked until 2:30 p.m. My lunch was on the large side, a biryani dish with some extra zucchini. But at 2:30 I went out for a glorious 80 minutes on the bike, including registering my second best time on the Old La Honda Hill, a 27:42!  When I came back I did some good stretching for 20 minutes, and some crunches. I worked another hour, making it a thoroughly tiring weekend — not to whine, but it was too many hours of work for one weekend.

Dinner was a healthy chicken chili from a Martha Stewart’s cookbook — amazing flavor and spice in a low fat dish! I had been avoiding it all weekend because I was sure it was going to be a blah dish, boy was I wrong. Perhaps if I have that a couple times a week I could really make some faster progress!

Which brings us to today, Monday! I got up at 5:45 a.m. for a 6:45 a.m. call with the senior executives. I had to do it early so I could get a workout in before I left for the airport, which I did at 9:30 a.m. I had my normal breakfast. On the plane I had had fish and veggies, and I was still so hungry I had to eat half a wheat roll. The good news is I have had my normal wonderfully productive plane time — I reviewed a contract, wrote a professional development review, wrote a memo to the Board of Directors, did some scheduling and some email … all so far, before I turned to the Match the Mayor Campaign and my wonderful teammates in this endeavor!

I will land in Florida in a few hours for a meeting. Then I will fly to D.C. after the meeting, arriving quite late and putting tomorrow’s workout at risk. I will use the late flight to attack my email backlog some more; I would like it gone by the end of this week.

I am in D.C. until Thursday, at which point I will fly to Orlando for my first Academy in a LONG time, I am psyched! If you are coming, please be nice, I am WAY out of practice. After the Academy I will do an interview and a conference call, and then hop on a plane about 8:00 p.m. to fly to Nashville. On Friday morning I will do a meeting there, and then fly back to California.

I hope I can drop the last 2 pounds! … and you “too!”

One for All & All for One!

KT

(Those who lie with dogs get up with fleas .. Ben Franklin)

One for All

Yo DaVitans!

Yikes!  We are in day 77, only 13 more to go in the 9 in 90 campaign. Many of you are looking better than me — I now have five first thing weigh-ins over two weeks, all between 189 and 191. So I am down seven pounds, which is translating into a one belt loop move on most days. Over the last week I can actually feel the difference for the first time.

I left you sometime last Monday. Cheryl (my assistant and lifeline) went out and picked up healthy chicken and veggies for dinner. We ate in my office and kept working until 10:45 p.m. and then we called it a night. I did have two bowls of Cheerios for dessert later that night.

I started Tuesday with a solid workout on the lifecycle and a little bit of stretching and weightlifting, along with a banana and ham breakfast.Cheryl picked me up at 8:15 a.m. and as usual my day was wall to wall meetings with 15 minutes carved out for me to eat a chicken/healthy black beans/lettuce lunch from Chipotle.  While I eat I either listen to voicemail or Cheryl comes in and asks me scheduling questions. She likes this because I have to listen while I am chewing.

I worked at the casa until 7:15 p.m. and then went to a two hour dinner with some California political people, hopefully positioning DaVita to have more influence on California Medicaid reimbursement in the future. After dinner I did a mini-Town Hall with a couple of our high potential managers who were staying at the same hotel where my dinner was held, until 10:20 p.m. I had salmon and veggies for dinner, with a salad to start. Once again, a couple bowls of Cheerios as I read the paper later that night.

Wednesday started with a workout, the same as the day before and the same ham and banana breakfast. I also took a 15 minute walk to savor the fresh ocean air, and Cheryl once again picked me up at 8:15 a.m. On these days at the Casa DaVita, I have a bowl of almonds and a plate of fruit in my office. I eat the almonds in sets of 3 — 12 on Tuesday, 9 on Wednesday. Almonds are in the healthy nut category, and quite filling. I also had a couple more bananas and an orange over the course of my three days at the Casa last week.

Wednesday was just like Monday and Tuesday. Wall to wall meetings on various topics, with the 15 minutes for the same chicken Chipotle lunch as Tuesday. I left the office about 5 p.m. , so I could get home in time for a late dinner with my wife — remember I have to go to the airport and fly from LA to San Francisco to get home. I did a conference call during the ride home from the airport, we had a wonderful dinner at 8 p.m. or so. I agreed not to work after dinner, we had a wonderful chat and went to bed early.

More later — thanks for continuing to submit entries, let’s all try to finish strong!  I will check in and see how many partners we have now, all trying to help each other lead healthier lives, in any dimension!

One for All!

KT