When we decided to focus on Resolution Solutions for January, it became very clear that our idea list was long, but time - especially during the holidays - was short. Let’s Dish! can help address so many different resolutions that we could go in almost any direction. We also wanted to provide valuable tips to our customers that could help everyone keep their resolutions all year long - no matter what you’re focused on in 2008. Well, you can imagine that we immediately found ourselves with an unrealistic - though admirable - goal for the new year.

So, I like to think we employed Amy’s resolution solution (below) before we even received it: prioritize and get real. First, we decided to prioritize and focus on how we’d communicate of our resolution solutions. In our stores, we’ll be reinforcing how Let’s Dish! can help you keep your shiny new resolutions - to give you just a few ideas on how you can eat healthier, reduce stress, spend more time with your family - or even eat more veggies! Drop in this month because you won’t want to miss our pledge to pamper our customers (or help you pamper yourself!) with the chance to win an overnight stay and spa package for two at the PURE Stillwater Spa at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina in Cambridge, MD.

Then, we decided to launch our new Food for Thought blog as a way to communicate resolution solutions more broadly. And, when we got real, we thought it best to turn to some experts in the field. We’ve asked life coaches and professional organizers throughout the mid-Atlantic to send us their best tips for keeping your resolution to get organized in 2008. We’ll share some of their ideas each weekday on the blog - and you’ll also learn a little more about the key team here making your Let’s Dish! dinner possible each month. And, it’s our hope that the conversation continues beyond January to explore other topics that are of interest to our intelligent and very busy dishing community.

Please take a moment to subscribe to Food for Thought - and then the tips in this blog will come right to you via email or through your web-based reader (My Yahoo, etc.) Then take a read and reflect on our first resolution solution. It is truly the key to all “resolution setting” to follow:

Decide the most important tasks to be accomplished (what needs to be done at once or what will make you feel as though you are making progress toward your goal).Create realistic goals; setting your sights too high at one time can cause you to get discouraged.
- Amy Goldberg-Cutler, The Runaround

p.s. We do already have Resolution Solution submissions planned for each day this month, but if you’d like to provide more tips to help our Let’s Dish! customers keep their New Year’s Resolutions, please email resolutiontips@letsdish.net. We are always interested in tips that relate to Let’s Dish! of course, but helpful advice relating to health and wellness, family and more are also welcome.