December 10, 2009

Yo to my fellow MM II Partners!

Well the Match the Mayor II Campaign ends tomorrow.  Working on this stuff with all of you has made it more fun, more important, more fulfilling, and more consistent than I ever would have otherwise.  I am particularly grateful to those who took the time and had the courage to submit their own entries.

I will do a wrap-up email over the weekend.  Right now it is about midnight on Wednesday night, and I am on a plane flying down to Los Angeles.  I don’t know if I will be able to get up early enough to workout tomorrow a.m.  That would be quite ironic to miss out on the last day.

But today was glorious !!  2 hours of pick-up basketball on a full-size basketball court.  I shot terribly but played good defense, and the team I was on won every game so we never left the court.  When I drove home after the games I stiffened up so much I could barely get out of the car.  But 120 monster minutes on day 59 of the MM II saga!  Also zero diet cokes and healthy/lite eating.

Tomorrow is a day full of meetings until the Casa Holiday Party in the evening.  I miss being at the Casa, there is a strong Village spirit in much of the team there.  The Village lives when individual teammates decide to make it live, and in the Casa there are many who do.

Today I had meetings on the VA,  DaVita RX, Compliance, benefits, FMC contracts, healthcare reform, private patient retention, and one or two others I don’t remember.  A good day.

Hope you are all well.  I look forward to “talking” to you over the weekend.

To Tammy from Winter Park, Florida,

I wish some of the rest of us could have been there to see the faces of your mom and husband when they saw you with that 10 pounds gone!  Please give your son a hug from the Mayor and 900 others for taking those cookies away.

Yo to Angela from Greenville, South Carolina,

I do hope to see you on the Tour next year.  I don’t think I will be able to keep up with you, so I will talk to you back at camp!

Mucho respect to Karen of Cold Spring, Kentucky,

Bilateral mastectomies could set anyone back for awhile — but it is awesome that you are one week without smoking and two weeks into exercise.  I hope this note finds you at two and three weeks!

Shout out to Jamie of Memphis, Tennessee,

Did you run in the marathon this past weekend?  How did it go?  You go, whatever you are!

Congrats to Jackie of Evansville, Indiana,

8 pounds!  Well done, especially right after dealing with H1N1.

Encouragement to Joyce from Lufkin, Texas,

Please do get back in the saddle!  If you can’t do the strenuous stuff because of the coughing, just do some good walks, gentle but sustained stretching (buy a yoga dvd), or whatever … establishing a routine is half the battle, deciding what you can put into it is the other half — and sometimes it just cannot be as intense as you would like.  The key is taking control of your scheduling.

A huge hug to Tess of Tacoma, Washington,

We are in this together, darn straight!  I am sorry that you were, or are, in a rough stretch.  Hopefully the healthy activities can be a sort of oasis in the midst of those tough days, when you know you are being good to yourself and your loved ones.  Your 900 partners wish you well not only in exercise, but in life.

Welcome back to Rebekah from Gilbert, Arizona,

One of our most regular contributors …. please do measure your bp each morning.  Sometimes it is useful to think of something like that, or exercise, as just another part of your job.  Not negotiable, it just is something you do.  Best of luck !!

Three cheers for David from Houston, Texas,

Congrats on the 8 pounds, that seems to be a popular number — wish I had hit that!  It is pretty striking what 3 long walks a week can do over 9 weeks, with a little “no seconds” will power at dinner.  Like so many big things in life, this one comes in little steps.  Lots of little steps, taken every week, add up in kind of amazing ways.

Lots to learn from Lori of Glen Allen, Virginia,

The Tour DaVita strikes again!  It is amazing how many teammates refer to the Tour as an event which helped to set them on a new course.  Down 3 dress sizes!  Reading about all these successes I am thinking perhaps I should not be so happy about hitting my minutes and beating my diet cokes goals, I should be tougher on myself for missing my 5 pound weight loss goal!

Salute to Diane from Tempe, Arizona

Back surgery!  ouch.  My herniated disc was bad enough for me.  I had to take up swimming laps because for months that was the only intense exercise I could do.  Stay healthy!

Greetings to Pamela from Minneapolis, Minnesota,

3.3 points down on BMI is awesome.  You earned a little Thanksgiving decadence!  Now all you have to do is root for the Green Bay Packers to beat the Vikings and I will really be in your corner.

To Maggie from Deland, Florida,

Superb job in not taking the easy way out when confronted with that buffet filled with fatty food!  That was a real test.

Find and Savor the Peace and Strength in Doing Good for your Body, and Anticipate the Sense of Well-Being to Come.

Your friend and mayor,  KT