Greetings to the Good People of DaVita,

This entry will be a quick one. It is 11:30 pm and I have been going since 5:45 am, minus my workout.  I need to get up at 6 am for my workout tomorrow, so I must write fast.

22 solid minutes on the Lifecycle this am, while listening to voice-mail until I hit the big hills. 10 minutes of PT.  I raced to the airport while having a phone call with Julie, my scheduler, on the way. I was trying to figure out what requests we can squeeze in over the next 8 weeks.  I got a great deal of email done on the plane ride to Vegas, then I had a call in the car on the way to the HCP office.  I was on time for a 10 am meeting that had back to back subjects until 5:30.  Afterwards, I headed to an early dinner with a hospital company.

It was a good dinner. We discussed some serious ideas for new stuff to do together, then they departed  for the airport and we did a conference call on strategy presentation for the board from 7:45 to 8:45.  Then I meet with Dennis Kogod, COO of the Village, until about 9:45.  Then I checked into the hotel and started with my emails, taking a break to talk to Denise, my wife, for 25 minutes.  Now it is time to read the paper and go to bed.

BUT not until I tell you about a great thing that happened today.  I was sitting through 7 hours of  meetings, experiencing the post-lunch let-down, and opened a diet coke… I took two small sips and then asked for a caffeinated tea instead!  I will take this victory as a sign of continued progress, thanks to all 5,300 of you!!

All the best, KT

Yo DaVita !!

Another 3000 page views of the little Mayor’s journal last week, almost 20,000 in total — so we are having a good and robust conversation.

I stopped doing email about 11 pm on Sunday night. I turned the light’s out at midnight as I finished my day’s reading in bed as is the norm. I had a  5:45 wake up call but I found I just did not feel like getting out on a bike at that time. So I took a brisk walk up the hill to the mountain ridge, about 35 minutes of exhilarating fresh air.  Then we rushed into the car for 2 hours of phone calls as we drove back to Denver.

I went from strategy meetings (our annual strategy session with the Board is next week) to public policy meetings (discussing that terrible rate cut we will be hit with in January of 2014) to compliance to a new executive announcement to a doctor issue etc etc..  Back to back as usual.  Then I had an early dinner with 5 other CEO’s where we had some great discussions on productivity/process improvement, and I  was home by 9:30.  It took 45 minutes to unpack and pack as I leave shortly this morning for my HealthCare Partners meeting in Las Vegas.  I am working now before the flight, will do email on the flight, then will have back to back meetings with about 15 different wonderful executives from HCP all day, then dinner with the CEO of a hospital company we do business with and are discussing some new opportunities.  The dinner will end at 7:30 for him to catch a flight, I will then have an HCP Strategy Presentation for the Board meeting until 8:45, then a one on one with Dennis Kogod from 9 to 10.  Then a few email and bed.  So I need to hustle now and get to my workout!

I did not have a diet soda yesterday!  So it is clear I will exceed my goal as I am averaging well under 1 per day, versus what must have been something like an average of 1.6 or 1.8 before MTM.

Even better news I finally got to weigh myself this am, on my home scale, right after getting up, without any special circumstances from the day before (like dehydration, or water retention due to eating a pizza or something) and the weight was 188.8.

The bad news is I will not hit my goal of losing 10 pounds to 184.0.   The good news is I am down 5.2 pounds. Hopefully I can add a couple more this week.  The fact that I will be doing a 65 mile road bike ride on Thursday, with some decent hills, will help.

I hope you are all well, and achieving your goals.  Together we are strong!  Together we will all get healthier!  Together we will stand.   One for all,  KT

Good evening to the good people of the DaVita Village,

It is 10 pm on Sunday night.  I hope you all achieved your MTM VI goals today!

I worked from 8:15 am until 7 pm today, EXCEPT I did a short 15 minute hike to a hilltop with my daughter and enjoyed a picnic lunch with her for an hour. We talked about many things, it was glorious.  Also, I did 20 minutes of rehab at one break and I did 80 minutes of road biking with 1900 feet of vertical.  So some very nice breaks to the day.  I needed to catch up on some stuff to try to provide Service Excellence to some teammates I work with, and I will be taking this Thursday and Friday off.  On Thursday I will do a 65 mile road bike ride and on Friday I will be at a camp with a lot of speakers, music, etc.. in northern California, a place called The Bohemian Grove.

I will have a day filled with meetings tomorrow, culminating in a business dinner with 5 other CEO’s of large companies.  I hope to be home by 9 pm, at which point I will pack  to fly to Las Vegas first thing Tuesday morning for a full day HealthCare Partners retreat.  The meetings will end about 10 pm or so.  The next day is a big strategy session and some compliance meetings, followed by a flight to California, where I will do 2 conference calls when I land, and then have dinner with a member of the Board of Directors to cover many topics.

One diet Mountain Dew today and reasonable eating.  I will be most curious to see what my weight is on Tuesday am, my one morning at home in awhile.

The bike rides and hikes were beautiful yesterday and today.  Not only the mountains, forests, streams and wildflowers … but I also saw 3 young bucks, one a 10 pointer! They were only 45 feet away, as we hiked past them on a trail.  Amazing!  Today, right outside our cabin window we saw a mother doe and her little bambi baby with all the white spots. She proceeded to treat us to a thorough cleaning of the baby by the mommy, followed by a nursing  for a few minutes.  Magical.  How amazing the intricacies of nature are, at least equal to any human invention ever.

One for All, KT

Yo DaVita !

Quick update on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

I resisted any diet cokes today, even though I was falling asleep while trying to read a book on Thomas Jefferson outside.  I have read books on all the Founding Fathers, but this is the first one on him that I think is high quality.

My tiredness did not come from lack of sleep, I got 7 hours last night.  Except maybe lack of sleep in the context of the amount/intensity of exercise.  Today was an intense 90 minutes on the road bike, with 1900 feet of vertical.  My time on the big hill was 47:56, one of my better times over the last 3 years.  After the bike ride I did 20 minutes of therapy, which unfortunately appears to be creating the same pain in my shoulder rather than avoiding it.  I will see what the PT says at my next appointment.  Anyway, after the rehab we did a 105 minute hike with a fair amount of vertical, on beautiful trails.

Finally, I am about to do 20 minutes of stretching in a hot steam room, to try to loosen up the legs a bit after the last 4 days of pushing them quite hard each day with timed and strenuous hill exercise.  Then I will get a 90 minute deep tissue massage, which as many of you know means a painful one where they find the trigger points and try to release them through pressure.  But this should get me back on the trails tomorrow – the 5 mile run I did yesterday, after several months without running, has my thighs so sore I can barely walk down steps.

So this will be an exceptionally strong day in terms of minutes and quality of exercise and physical rehabilitation.

Based on my belt, however, I doubt I am doing much on the weight front.  Quite embarrassing.

Hopefully many of you with 3 goals are hitting on all 3!  I am not giving up on my third one.  And I am not giving up on any of you.  I hope you saw some of my responses from yesterday, I am trying to squeeze them in, while also trying to limit work to 2-3 hours today and 4-5 tomorrow.  I hope you are all well!

It is easy to be mindful.  It is hard to remember to be mindful.

All the best, KT

Good Morning to the Good People of the DaVita Village,

Quick one, because yesterday was supposed to be a vacation day and I ended up working 4 hours, so I am in the doghouse.

As was mentioned in one of the earliest Mayor Journal entries, right now I have left knee issues (result of cartilage tear and surgery a few years ago), labrum tears in left shoulder, costochondritis or something like that in my left rib cage, and some achilles tendon issues.  Yikes.  Anyway the knee issues have kept me from running for quite a few years, but I went and got an MRI, increased our understanding of the issues, and am starting focused rehab to try to get me back on the trails.

Yesterday I had a wonderful time hitting the trails with Joe Mello (okay okay, I know I am supposed to wait to run until after the rehab, but let’s call it a scouting mission).  5 miles, 65 minutes, 900 feet of vertical, all dirt trails.  Later … I was a happy but aching boy.  I was feeling so good I did 40 minutes of stretching and rehab, my best ever in MTM.  Later today I will get a massage – don’t get the wrong idea, this is not a “feel-good-rub-your-temples” massage, this is a painful “let’s find the pressure points in your muscles and push them hard to release them” torture session.  But it should help my legs recover from the other stuff, and reduce the chance of injury.

I had a diet mtn dew yesterday.  Have to admit it tasted wonderful!  And I needed it after staying up until 2 am with my friend who has a lot going on.

I doubt I am losing any weight.  With 10 people here, the evening dinners are long and meandering events, with appetizers, beer and wine, desserts, lots of foods, etc.  Double Yikes.

Today I am starting with an hour’s work, with a little rehab thrown in.  Then a road bike ride with Joe; 5 miles, 2000 feet of vertical.  Then a hike with our two spouses.  After that a short hike and picnic lunch with my 23 year old daughter, who is with us this weekend along with 2 of her friends.  We find our kids visit us much more if we invite their friends, and that way we get to know them as well!  At every other dinner I do “table questions”, wherein I ask questions about serious stuff that everyone at the table must answer.  The other night it was “What do you most look forward to over the next 12 months?”  The answers led to some great conversations, for the 10 of us it took 2 hours.

Good luck on your goals today!  Please picture 5,200 of us cheering you on!

One for All ….. KT

Yo DaVita !!

A quick note before I head out for a run.

First, the reason I am trying to reduce my diet cokes is that it just doesn’t feel healthy to ingest all those chemicals.  I am pretty good on fresh fruits and vegetables every day, even on the road as best I can be, and taking in all those chemicals just feels inconsistent.

Second, yesterday I had zero!

Third, yesterday included a high intensity 90 minutes of road biking, including 2100 feet of vertical, during which we saw two young bucks close up, both with their antlers in impressive adolescence. It also included 18 minutes of physical therapy, outside in the fresh air which made it a lot less boring than usual.

Fourth, I ALMOST got to bed without dessert …. But then a dear old friend asked me to stay up and talk about some stuff going on in his life.  2 hours later I had had 2 beers and a bunch of cake.  DARN.

I am enjoying a nice mix of exercise over this weekend.  Mountain biking, road biking, running, physical therapy, hiking.  That is not only better for my body, in that I work different muscle groups and coordination challenges … but also keeps things interesting.

We are nearing the home stretch.  5,200 of us, across the globe, working to lead healthier lives.  This is not a dress rehearsal, this is our lives.  Let’s do it.

All the best, KT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!

We have much to be grateful for, and much responsibility to keep the good things about America alive.  We also want to make sure our Global Village honors the special birthdays of all our new international brothers and sisters, please let Steve Priest our Chief Wisdom Officer know your ideas in this regard.

There have been over 13,000 page views of the Mayor’s journal entries, and I enjoy reading each and every one of the comments to help guide me as to what might be interesting.  It is fun to picture myself communicating with over 5200 teammates helping each other and themselves lead healthier lives.

Yesterday was a great day for me, both overall and in MTM.

I did great exercise.  2 hours of intense mountain biking (with 3 falls) in a beautiful hilly forest.  4 times I had to get off the bike because a hill was too steep or technical, so I was pushing myself.  The good news is I push the bike up with rigor even when I am off it, so my heart rate stays up at a robust workout level.  Then late in the day I did a one hour hike with some good vertical with Denise and Joe Mello (our former COO) and his wife Ginny.  So big minutes!

I only did about 3 hours of work.  That felt like heaven.  I assume most of you have heard Medicare is planning on subjecting the kidney care community to unprecedented huge rate cuts.  We must fight this plan with our head, heart and hands.  It is likely to be impossible to keep all our centers open if they do this.  It is a terrible plan, we have 60 days to protest.  It is especially terrible to do to us, given we lead the US community in quality outcomes, which leads to lower costs … not to mention we are the leading innovator by far in our community, with what we have done with DaVita RX, Lifeline, Patient Pathways, and Village Health over the years.  In every instance the rest of the community starts to copy us years later, as the innovations demonstrate big value for our patients and our taxpayers.  Anyway we began the work of planning to protest these cuts.  What they should do is give us responsibility to manage the entire pool of ESRD reimbursement dollars, on a completely transparent and accountable basis.  We would improve quality for tens of thousands!  And save billions.

Anyway, back to yesterday and our little MTM VI.

I got back to zero diet cokes.

I have no idea what my weight is, but I ate responsibly, had no dessert, so I imagine I made a little progress.  Nothing dramatic, I did not skimp on the eating either.   Looking down at that belly above my belt is pretty disgusting.

Last night we went and watched fireworks, all 10 of us.  Today some will go to the parade, and we will all go to the July 4^th concert, where the Dallas Symphony plays classic American music for 90 minutes, with people waving flags and sometimes singing along, in a beautiful but simple outside amphitheater.

This weekend is an opportunity to double down on your MTM goals, double down on investing in your future!  Please picture the 5,200 fellow citizens of the DaVita Village cheering you on!  I am about to head out on a road biking ride with Joe.   2000 feet of vertical, will take about 50 minutes, a constant climb so simply a great, efficient workout.  Then I better remember to do some of my rehab, I have missed 3 days in a row with the long days in DC.  Yikes.

Serenity is action aligned with purpose.    Go Team.   Go Village.  Go each of you, go forth and realize your full potential !!!!

One for All, KT

Yo DaVitans!

It is Wednesday morning, and it is a beautiful one!  Hope you all are well, and going to achieve your daily goal today.  Also, that you have scheduled your weekend with your health goals in mind.

I had successful meetings in DC yesterday, and took off about 3:30 to head back to Colorado.  I did do 24 minutes on the bike in the morning, but that was it.

However, when I got to our cabin in Colorado, I did 90 minutes of work and then went out for a quick 25 minute mountain biking ride on a big hill (we are in the mountains) before a late dinner.

The bad news is I had 1.5 diet cokes yesterday, perhaps the first day I have had more than 1.0 since MTM started.  Oh well.  I was exhausted.  The good news is I am still well ahead overall, and I think the new and lower consumption level is becoming “normal” for me and will be sustained.  I think I will continue to track it.  In fact I will.

On the weight front, we don’t have a scale up here.   But I am not feeling good.

Today I will go out and do a very intense mountain biking ride.  It will be glorious!  And I will do hundreds and hundreds of emails.  That will be less glorious.

I look forward to reading some of the recent notes you have sent in.   I do read them all.

Happy Birthday America, we will watch fireworks tonight and go to a July 4^th concert tomorrow, one where they hand out flags to wave and play all the classic American songs.  On several of them, the whole crowd joins in.   For our teammates from other countries, may we also wish your nation’s the very best, and honor your history and heritage.  We are one community.  A Global Village.   Ride on.

KT

Greetings to the Good People of DaVita …

Quick note tonight … I am tired.

I got to hotel in DC around midnight,  had to do some work, turned off the bed lamp at 2:30 am.  I woke up at 6:30 am to work out and head to a day of meetings.  Meetings ended at 7:30 pm, went straight to business dinner with 2 members of our Board of Directors.  Good productive dinner, then had another meeting over a beer with a DVA exec until 10:45 pm.  then came back, did some email/vmail, called my wife, called my daughter, and now it is 12:10 am and I will read the paper and go to bed.  Tomorrow starts about 6:15 am.

Today I did 26 solid minutes on lifecycle.  No PT.  Zero Diet Cokes.

All the best to all of you!!!!

One for all, KT

Yo DaVita !!

It’s Sunday afternoon and I am back on the grid.  What a glorious 3.5 days of mountain biking/camping it was!

The first day of biking for me was Thursday, which was the third day for the broader group of DaVita vice-presidents.  Then my son and 4 of his friends joined for the Friday ride, and most of the DaVita group left Saturday pre-ride.  We were on the amazingly beautiful north rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was hot.

I facilitated conversations at lunch on most days, and always before and during dinner.  We sung campfire songs with Mark Mazak on guitar, after our hearty dinners under the stars.  This year’s group came up with one of the best lists of potential new answers to the question I ask every year “What can we do to make our Village/community/human concepts come more true for more of our people?”.  I took notes and will bring them home.  One of the ideas that came from the campfire discussion 7 years ago was the creation of The Tour DaVita – because I wanted something that had some of the same elements, namely exercise, all-day fresh air, physical beauty, organized reflections, and camaraderie …. BUT that could have hundreds of teammates participating, many with family members … not just 12 or so.

The mountain biking was quite intense, so the actual exercise hours may look light to you – but remember we are on trails out in the woods, trails with lots of ups and downs.  So this was extremely high quality exercise; working cardio, muscular, balance, coordination, etc.  It also feels like a lot of work to clamber in and out of a small tent at my advanced age of 57, but I guess I won’t count that.

Anyway, as far as hours of biking exercise:

Thursday     =        4.5

Friday          =        3.3

Saturday     =       3.8

Sunday        =       1.4

I did rehab Thursday & Saturday, my PT wants me to switch to every other day.  15 minutes each day.  I also did 10 minutes of additional stretching each day, so Village Vitality overseer, please add those minutes up!

On the diet coke front, I had 2 over the 3 days.  I hope to avoid any today, Sunday.  Time will tell.

On weight, I fear that the amount of food we ingested will mean I did not make much progress there.  When I get home, I will  have 2 hours to shower, pack, and head off for meetings in DC that starts first thing Monday morning.  Quite the re-entry.  Anyway, this means I will not get to my standard “first thing in the am” weigh-in.  But I will try to remember to check it, even though it will be mid-afternoon.

Tis my hope that thousands of you are continuing to reach your MTM goals for a healthier life.  It was fun to picture 5300 of you lining the sides of the trails during the tough uphill climbs, urging me on.  And the fact is I also ate less at meals and  snacks than any other mountain biking/camping trip, a tribute to the Tribal Affect that you have on me.

One for All, KT