October 6, 2008

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