Yo DaVitans!

With memories of my big helpings of cake on thursday night fresh in my mind, today (Friday) I was inspired to my first zero diet coke day since MM II began!

I went for a 25 minute run at 6:30 pm, before my wife and I went out for a quiet dinner to reconnect with one another as we had not had dinner together since last Sunday night.  I also did about 5 minutes of stretching, and one set of sit-ups and push-ups.  So a total of 34 minutes of quality exercise.

I ate reasonably all day, nothing impressive, nothing decadent.  Until 10:pm, when I had a glorious bowl of vanilla ice cream with half a brownie mixed in.  It was absolutely wonderful.  As I savored it, I committed to a big day of exercise tomorrow.

Hope you all had a good week.

One for All,

KT

Yo DaVItans.

Finally a good strong exercise session!

I have what I call my Sweet Sixteen workout.  20 to 30 minutes on the lifecycle with good intensity, 3 sets of bench-press, 3 sets of curls, 3 sets of 30 second deep knee bends, and 3 sets of toe raises, plus other misc stretches and a set of sit-ups.  16 activities.

Yesterday (Thursday) I did the Sweet Sixteen and a couple extra things as well.   55 minutes of wonderful purging of toxins, stress, thinking about work, etc!

Plus only one diet coke.  Reasonable eating altho I did have some cake for dessert.  And 7 wonderful hours of sleep.

Today I am racing to try to get a bunch of email done, since this is an IT maintenance weekend and there will be no access to email for corporate for most of the weekend.  Typically weekends and long plane flights are my email catch-up time, and I am quite behind right now because of some work and personal stuff.  But I still have a bit of a glow because of yesterday’s Sweet Sixteen Plus, and the fact that I know I will get exercise Friday night before dinner.

It was a good Voice of the Village call on Wednesday, by the way.  About 2800 teammates on the line.  We thought we did a good crisp set of up-dates, and then there were some good questions.  We did a lousy job on one answer, but overall a good exchange.

Life’s rich pageant.  One for All.

KT

Yo DaVita !

It is Wednesday night as I type this, about 1 am (I guess that technically makes it Thursday).  I left the planning retreat early so I could take a family member to the doctor for an important appointment.  It was a good retreat, very fun to announce to the group that it looks like once again, for the 9th year in a row, we are going to get to say that we improved our clinical outcomes over the prior year, meaning once again they are OUR BEST OUTCOMES EVER.

Congratulations !!!  What a gift you are giving to our 115,000 patients.  No brag, just fact.

We also had a spectacular week in Washington DC last week, where no less than four respected members of Congress publicly talked about the Village in glowing terms.  That’s right, they literally referred to it as the Village, they literally referred to me as the Mayor, and they literally talked about how our team seems to act and feel differently than other companies they have visited.  Each of these members of Congress has attended part of at least one Nationwide meeting, and most of them had visited centers.  It was an amazing moment, I was reluctant to say anything after they spoke because I was afraid I would mess things up somehow.

But back to the health campaign.  This continues to be a slightly weak exercise week — I did not get back from the doctor stuff until after 6:00 pm.  I had to do some calls and email, so I started working out about 6:45.  I did 21 good minutes on the bike, 4 minutes of stretching, and 1 set each of sit-ups and push-ups.

Only one diet coke, despite another night of only 5.5 hours of sleep.  Reasonable eating.  So overall a solid day, but I really am due for a big workout, as opposed to another maintenance session.

I hope you all had a good day, and one in which you achieved your goals for the day!

One for All,

KT

Yo DaVita !

On Monday night our annual Planning Retreat with the top 25 folks began.   We worked until about 10:30, and then I sat and caught up with a couple people until midnight.  I turned the lights off in bed about 1 am.

While it was so good to spend time with them, it did not feel like a good decision on Tuesday morning when the alarm went off at 6:30 am.  I went down and did 20 good minutes on the lifecycle, but only had time for about 4 minutes of stretching before I had to run to shower and get ready for the start of the morning session.

I kicked off the meeting with A State Of the Village assessment.  As is customary, I started the State of the Village with a listing of the areas where the senior team and I under performed over the last 12 months, relative to what we would expect of ourselves.

Given I had very little sleep on two of the previous three nights, I was tired.  I lost my discipline, and had 4 diet cokes thru the course of the all day meetings.  Darn.  The good news is the first 3 days of Match the Mayor I did well in this category, so I am not too far off my goal of averaging 1 per day.  Fortunately my eating was reasonable.

It is a good meeting so far.  One of the exercises was “I am the new CEO, and this is what I will do differently”.  And every attendee got to articulate the 4-5 more important changes they would make.  Great stuff!

One for All,

KT

Yo DaVitans,

On Sunday I missed exercise — this may have been the first Sunday all year.  I had a family emergency that meant I spent the whole day in the hospital.  Everything is working out okay, but exercise was not the priority.

Sunday was a good day for the other two Health Goal categories for me.   I had less than 1 diet coke, and I ate reasonably from a caloric point of view.

But my body really craved exercise today (Monday), it hates to miss a day at this point, it is used to it.  I had time for a medium workout before flying out of town for a planning retreat.

I did 32 good minutes on the LifeCycle (burning up about 340 calories), one set of sit-ups, one set of push-ups, and about 4 minutes of stretching.  For a total of 40 minutes of quality exercise.

I don’t know about you, but exercise is as positive mentally and spiritually for me as it is physically.  Helps me relax, get grounded, stay more positive.

One for All,

KT

Yo DaVita!

Greetings to the good people of Davita.  Sorry I did not do a message on Friday, but it was a 4 city day for me.  I started with an early workout and a couple phone calls in Washington DC.  Then I flew to Nashville to do a Town Hall with 33 managers and directors who were attending a DaVita University class, I love doing those.  Then I flew to Denver for a meeting.  Then I flew home to California for a late dinner with my beloved wife!

I am psyched for another Match the Mayor.  Last year I lost 9 pounds in 90 days, which I would not have done without having about 550 of you publicly committing to your own goals and cheering me and others on.   Unfortunately I had knee surgery a bit after that, and I gained 6 of the 9 back during the post-surgery months when I could not exercise with the same intensity.

So here are my goals:

1.    Maintain my current exercise minutes.   35 minutes per weekday.  Usually in the form of 20 minutes on the lifecycle, then 15 minutes of stretching, sit-ups, push-ups.  The 35 minutes only captures the exercise time, I don’t count changing, or walking to the gym in the hotel, or any of that.

3 hours on the weekend.  1 hour of which can be a good hike, but the other 2 must be more intense.

If I miss a day, which sometimes I have to because of early meetings or plane flights and late dinners and plane flights, I will have to make it up on another day.

So my goal is (5×35) = 175 plus (3×60) = 180 = 355 minutes per week of healthy exercise.

2.    I also want to reduce my diet coke consumption by 60%.  Over the last year it has increased to 2.5 a day.  I want to reduce it to 1.0 per day.  There are so many bad chemicals in there.  I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t have that as a substitute.

3.    I want to drop 5 pounds in these 60 days, for a morning weight of 190.

Those are my goals, as some of you and I launch our new partnership for a healthier life for us, which will also do the same for those around us!

Today was a fine start for me.  I rode my road bike for 85 minutes (including a 27:13 time up the big hill near my house, a strong time for me, and better than a couple college age kids who looked skeptically at me at the bottom, but not at the top).  I had zero diet cokes.   And I only ate two meals, a late breakfast because I was so exhausted I slept until 10:30 am, and a dinner in which I did not go for seconds.  yet.

One for All & All for One, your mayor, KT

Get ready to get fit – make a commitment to Match the Mayor II

Our Mayor is back! Join KT by increasing the number of minutes you exercise each week. Set a goal that’s right for you and commit to adding at least one healthy activity to your daily routine. Over the next 60 days, KT will share his progress with you as he gets in shape and increases his physical activity.

Last year 583 of you committed to making a lifestyle change and we lost 1,422 pounds together. Are you up for the physical activity challenge? Keep your eye on the DaVita Village Voice for updates from KT.

Match the Mayor II starts October 10th