Yo DaVita!

I forgot to do my usual late-night MTM entry, sorry!.  I was a bit behind all day, we got to our Wisconsin cottage (just outside Sturgeon Bay, Door County, for you Wisconsinites out there) at about 11:30 pm after a relative’s high school graduation in northern Illinois earlier that night.  We were in bed at about 1 am, and my wife woke me up at 11 am worried I was going to sleep the entire day away.  Guess I was tired.

I worked on DVA stuff until about 2:15 pm, then went to get a deep tissue massage so I could try to fix my right leg enough to start running every now and then.  I stressed it running some hills a couple weeks ago and it has been slow to recover.  After the massage, I did a solid plus one hour bike ride, setting a new personal best on the “Potawatomi Figure 8 ride”.  My actual time was 50:54, a full 3 minutes better than my prior best time.  After that I did 11 minutes of PT, mostly shoulder and a little knee.  The extreme pain I was having on the “external rotation” shoulder exercise unfortunately means I have to go backwards a bit and try to approach that exercise again.  Darn.  I really want to get this should fixed so I can start doing push-ups and curls again.

With all that sleep, I only had a minor craving for a diet coke (interesting, given my body did not like the flavor the prior day … I guess the brain is behind the body), and so it was easy to pick up another zero day.  That part of MTM is going way better than I expected.  On the weight front, however, I doubt  I am doing very well, after the flank steak last night, with a little carrot cake chaser.

It was right after the workout that Denise and I had a great dinner with my mother, who lives nearby in Green Bay.  She is getting pretty fragile, so I am trying to get all the time with her I can.  She was driven up by a friend in the afternoon, and just hung out and napped.  After dinner we drove her to her cottage near-by, gave her the night-time pills, got her in her pajamas and into bed.  She was tired and grateful, she rarely leaves the assisted living home these days.  My hope is to get her to move out to Colorado this fall, so I can see her multiple times most weeks and fuss over her until the end.  Anyway, the dinner was wonderful, it was my first time grilling in the new cottage we built up here.

Looking at her you realize the consequences of years without investing in her health.  Back then people did not appreciate that just as you put deposits into a bank account to save for retirement, you need to put health deposits into your body to save it for retirement.  She had the added disadvantage of 15 major surgeries in her life, which has taken a toll.

But we all know the power of “health deposits” into our personal life account!  That is why we are joining together to create healthier lives!  There are now 3856 partners watching and supporting you, hoping for you, believing in you!!!  Make sure you consider sending an entry reporting your goals and progress, and urging other Village citizens on! Perhaps tomorrow I will give an update on the mix of international teammates.

A ship in the harbor is safe.  But that is not what ships were built for.

One for all, KT, yours in service

Dear DaVitans!

3, 703 partners in health!  I think we may already be ahead of last year.  More importantly many of us are on track for hitting our goals and living a healthier life. That is way cool.

I had quite a striking experience today.  The dinner with the CFO candidate and another exec and myself did not start until 8:30, I had other meetings until then.  It went 3 hours as we had a lot to discuss.  After that the other exec and I had a bunch of stuff to cover, and wanted to enjoy a beer, so I didn’t get to my room until 1, and it was 2 before I was in bed.  So I was tired today, and about noon I told myself I could have a diet coke.  I also like the flavor and was going to give myself that treat.  So I opened up a can, took a sip, and was stunned to discover I was not really enjoying the flavor.  I took a second one, and had the same reaction.  So I put it down and did not touch it again.  I wonder if my body just got used to having nothing but water (and beer) and just did not want to accept the chemical concoction.  We will see.

There was some other equally striking news, however.  When I got back to my room I got hit with my classic “I deserve a reward” attitude, and had a Kit Kat AND a Snickers Bar.  Terrible!  So I skipped lunch today to try to make up for some of that (dietitians, I realize this should not be a daily trade).  I can still feel the Kit Kat and Snickers in my stomach, taunting me …

My workout was the basic one.  24 minutes on the lifecycle, solid minutes, closing out with a few intervals to make sure my heart hung about above 140 for a bit.  Then 13 different rehab exercises, taking about 13 minutes. So 37 total.

On the work front, I had one call to go over an international acquisition.  I approved it.  I can’t tell you which country, we need it kept quiet still.  I had a call about an upcoming conference we are sponsoring with many potential business partners and folks who can help us on policy issues in DC.  We had a call to discuss the different CFO candidates, which included a couple of the Directors from our Board.  I had a meeting with the CEO of another company with whom we might do a joint venture.  I had a meeting to discuss a compliance issue, and another to discuss a market opportunity for both our Kidney Care and our HealthCare partner businesses.  I spent an hour with my assistants going over scheduling issues – right now, I am pretty much fully booked every minute of every day until the first week of August.  That is pretty normal, what is abnormal is the number of requests I am having to turn down.  A lot going on!

I hope each of you talks to one of your teammates about the idea of joining the MTM Tribe.  3,700 people committed to taking a step towards a healthier life, and helping others to do the same.  We are amazingly strong when we band together.

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

Carpe Diem!     KT

Greetings to the Good People of DaVita,

We are now 3,500 strong! With 17 participants from outside the United States, including: China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Guam, and American Samoa! About 350 are friends and family.  It is a strong tribe that we have created, a virtual neighborhood within our Village!

I am on a plane from Utah to Chicago.  No wifi, so it is nice to have a couple hours with no interruptions. I will do my MTM journal, then review some documents, then work on a Board presentation for a series of meetings I will be having with individual Board members.

I messed up last night, and misread my schedule!  I was about to head down to the gym this morning when I glanced at it again and saw the speaker’s session was beginning 30 minutes earlier than I thought. There was not enough time to get my exercise in.  I was ticked!  I turned around, showered, and went to listen to some more CEO’s share their thoughts on building successful enterprises.  Mitt Romney spoke first on national issues; I have known Mitt since he was one of the partners that recruited me to Bain way back in 1982.  I learned some good stuff from the speakers. The ones I heard, that is. I left and skipped one session so I could run back to my room, change for the gym, and get my workout in.  At this point my body just does not feel right unless it gets its daily workout.  I did a solid 25 minutes on the bike, then 10 sets of rehab exercise, for a total of 40 minutes pretty much on the button.

So that was solid.  Not so solid was the fact that I ordered a burger (no bun) at midnight 11:30 last night, and had a beer and ate 2 cookies to boot, when I stopped working.  Yikes!  Sometimes I do that as sort of a reward when I do email for 90 minutes late at night.  Can’t afford to do much of that and have a shot at my weight loss goal.  I skipped breakfast today and had a small lunch, to offset some of last night’s decadence.  I do love burgers though, and it tasted great.  It would have been a little tougher to eat if I had remembered to picture 3500 people yelling “NO, don’t do it!”  I am not fully in the MTM swing yet.

That bad news aside, the great news is I went a third day without a diet coke! (or diet poison as I started calling it a couple months ago)  Today will be a 4^th, given it is already 6 pm and I won’t have any on this plane flight.

I hope each of you is doing your thing today!  It does not matter if you missed yesterday, be gentle with yourself and resolve to get back up on the horse and try again.  We are all rooting for you!

One for All, KT

Yo DaVita!

For all of you who did what you had hoped to do today, please rejoice in your accomplishment!  You deserve to give yourself a pat on the back, even though it is only one step on the journey.  Since the journey is nothing but a collection of single steps.  And you did what you said you would do.  No brag, just fact.

And picture the fact that as you did it … whether it was reading for an hour, exercising for x amount of minutes, or eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables…A couple thousand fellow citizens were doing the same thing, and cheering you on for this step in determining your future.

I did 26 minutes on the bike.  It was my third consecutive day of dialing up the intensity over the levels I had pedaled over the last 6 months; I think it must just be the energy created by knowing I will be reporting to a couple thousand “friends” about what I am up to.  That is a good thing for me!

I then did about 13 minutes of rehab, 90% on my shoulder, the rest on my knee, so 39 minutes total.  I will share my PT tracking log in a few days because I just got some new exercises.

BUT IN ADDITION, I went another day without a diet coke (or any other caffeinated diet drink)!!!  3 days, long time since I have avoided those chemicals.  Please remember that my goal was to average one per day, versus what has probably been an average of 1.6 a day for many months.

As to my weight goal, my weight fluctuates a lot so I don’t want to report on daily numbers.  Also I weight myself at home, on the same scale, immediately after I get up … to do my best to maintain apples to apples comparison.  So far it is down a tiny bit.

As to the day, I had a doctor’s appointment in mid-morning, after a couple phone calls and email sessions.  I also do work calls as I am driving, so there is no waste.  Once in the office, it was a series of meetings, normal intensity and variety, until I left for the airport in the late afternoon.  I flew to Utah, in time for a dinner with 3 highly successful CEO’s talking about their company stories.  That was followed by 90 minutes of public policy debate with some other executives and me, until about 10:30 pm.  I will listen to about 6 more CEO’s tomorrow morning, then go to my hotel room for phone calls, then fly to Chicago.  I will have scheduled calls on the rides to and from the airports, as usual, and then a beer with one of our DaVita execs before a meeting.  Then we will do dinner with a CFO candidate.  Then we will do a further debrief on the dinner and some general business stuff.

We do hard work, it is cool that when we do it well, it benefits other people so directly and powerfully.  Begin with the End in Mind.

One for All & All for One …. KT

Dear DaVitans!!

Day 2 of our glorious shared adventure in Hawaii.  Our numbers have swelled to just over 3350, that is the number of DaVita citizens that are rooting for you, and hope you are rooting for them as well.  About 3050 are direct teammates, including 16 from outside the US. The rest are family and friends. Tis a good group!

I started my day at the same time, 6:15.  This time I went straight into the bedroom gym.  25 strong minutes on the bike, then I moved the resistance up to a new high.  Afterwards, I did my shoulder PT, and a little bit of knee PT.  After that I hit the computer for 30 minutes of email. To finish up, I had to go to the PT for a live session, which was 45 minutes of healthy activity and therapy (60 minutes total, but only 45 were active), so Village Vitality, please rack up those minutes on top of the 37 minutes I had at home.  The session was a bit of a bummer because I tried some push-ups for the first time since my injection, and the old pain came back.  Oh well, let’s hope I just need to get some more PT done first.

Into the Casa I went.  We had a good town hall today, probably about 500 of our Casa inhabitants.  I also had a strategy session, the beginning of our prep for the annual strategy review with the Board of Directors in mid-July.  The day also included a good-bye call to a longstanding field nurse, who has been here since before me and is a wonderful DaVita citizen … As well as a good-bye visit to one of our attorneys who has taken a bigger job in a much smaller company.  Both good folks, it felt good to thank them for their many years of good service.  The rest of the day was meetings, although once again, I had the pleasure of a 30 minute unscheduled gap to do some work on my own – wow, that feels special.

I also went a second day in a row without a diet coke, probably the first time I have done two week-days in a row in over a year.

A woman named Colette said “I had a wonderful life.  I only wished I’d realized that sooner.”

Let’s all remember the good things in our lives, and in our shared journey.  If you missed something today, just shrug it off and start anew tomorrow.  We are with you!

One for all, KT

Yo DaVita!

Day One of MTM VI !!  I hope you did well, and took a step towards your personal health improvement goals today.

Please step back a moment and picture this – you were not acting alone.  There were already over 2000 DaVita teammates, family members and friends who were with you in spirit.  Just picture 2000 of us, shoulder to shoulder, crossing the field of life as a team. Each of us is hoping for a successful Match the Mayor Campaign.

There were also over 3700 page views as of mid-day Monday. How cool is that?

I started my day at 6:15, with about 30 minutes of emails. Then I headed to my simple home gym (a converted bedroom).  I did 25 good minutes on the lifecycle, the first half listening to voicemails, the second half reading a Business Week magazine, except for the last few minutes, where I did 3 cardio intervals.  Then I did some physical therapy on my shoulder (I have some micro-tears in my labrum.  They did an ultrasound guided steroid injection about a week ago, pretty bizarre to be looking at a TV screen 15 inches from your face and see a needle going an inch and a half into your shoulder and feeling the eerie/very uncomfortable pressure as they pushed against the ligaments, etc.) and some other stretches, including some for my compromised knee where they took out a lot of the cartilage 5 years ago.  Getting old has its issues!  Anyway, a total of 38 minutes.

But yet we persevere!  I am happy I can still bike and hike and run(sort of run, that is … more of a jog at this point)!

I weighed in at 194.0 this A.M. – so I am going to slightly adjust my goal to an even 10 pounds, at 184.  I have never lost that much during an MTM.  I will need to picture all 2000 of you looking over my shoulder and wagging your fingers if I am to make it …as well as needing to “hear” the applause of all 2000 of you each day I make proportionate progress.

On the good news front, I had zero diet cokes today (I will use that label instead of “caffeinated diet drinks” since diet coke is usually the culprit).  That is the first day I have done that in awhile, and it only happened because of MTM, as I did not get to sleep until a little after 1 am.

My day was filled with meetings, as always, although there was one unscheduled 30 minute stretch!  The meetings were about some DVU (DaVita University) stuff, some business development, some government policy reviews, and things like that.  I was home by 7 pm, which is unusual but I had a therapist there to work on a leg injury so I hopefully can get some strong workouts in this weekend (writing this note is making me feel like a train wreck!).  The therapy was 7 to 8, more email from 8 to 9.  Now dinner (no dessert tonight!), then a bit more email and then to bed.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.  And day by day we create our own destiny.

Your mayor, yours in service, KT

Dear Fellow Citizens (and prospective citizens) of the DaVita Village,

It is time again for Match the Mayor!  Please consider gathering yourself, your friends, your fellow-workers, your family, your pets, perhaps even a few enemies, and join a bunch of us from around The Globe in our annual Health Improvement Campaign.  It has been amazing how so many of us achieve more when we join internet hands together than when we try things on our own.

It is simple, so even I can understand it.  You set a goal that is related to improving your health, physical, mental, spiritual, whatever.  You consider letting other people know of your goal.  Then you track it, as I track mine.  If you decide to make exercise minutes your goal you can also participate in the Hawaii adventure and track your progress as you cavort about the Islands.  But you can just vow to take a walk every day, or increase your servings of fruits and vegetables, or increase your sleep.  Whatever would represent a good step towards better health for you!

My most important goal is to drop 11 pounds. More than I ever have in a single MTM campaign. I need to get to 182 to do that. Yikes.

My second goal will be to average 40 minutes of exercise per weekday, and 75 minutes per weekend day.

My third goal will be to average no more than 1 can of caffeinated diet soft drink per day.

My fourth goal will be to dunk on a 10 foot regulation basket.

Forget that fourth goal. Maybe next year.

I will send out a MTM entry almost every day, letting you know what is going on with your Mayor & CEO, as well as how I am doing relative to my goals.  I will also try to respond to some of the messages sent to me, but I won’t be able to do that every day.  But I will read each and every one of them.

Let’s do it – like the community we are!

One for All,   KT