James Tourgout's weekly look at the world wide web

IT is freezing cold and rainy. It's dark when you get up for work, pitch black when you go home and everyone looks miserable.

Yes, it's the middle of January and the summer looks light years away. It's enough to make you start smoking again, drinking, stuffing yourself with chocolate or breaking any other New Year resolutions...if you haven't already.

A seven figure National Lottery win and a holiday home in the West Indies looks like the only answer to beating the January blues and staying on track. However, there are one or two websites to keep you on the right road once the initial saintly buzz of sticking to your resolution has worn off and the real hard work begins.

Getting fit, eating more healthily and losing weight are among the most common of vows uttered in the drunken - or hungover haze - of New Year's Day.

The Big Sisters site (www.bigsisters.co.uk) is a kind of Big Brother site following the exploits of six larger ladies who want to lose 20 stone between them. They're aged between 26 and 62 with a combined starting weight of 78st 12lb. Read their stories and follow their progress on the website. Watch and see if Julie, 32, manages to shed the two and a half stone needed to fit into her wedding dress - from size 16 to ten, apparently - in June. Join their weight loss regime, draw inspiration or keep watch for any sneaky snacking on their online video diaries.

Giving up smoking is one of the biggest resolutions going, but it's also one of the most difficult. If you find your resolve weakening and need a kick up the backside, check just how lethal your brand is at www.unhooked.org.

This gruesome site also has a few shocking statistics that might help. The Health Development's Agency's site www.givingup-smoking.co.uk offers great support, as does www.no-smoking-day.org.uk.

SWAP SHOP

THERE'S an annoying advert on television which urges kids to get rid of their Christmas presents they don't like by swapping them online.

All the ungrateful urchins have to do is to go to SwapitShop (wwwswapitshop.co.uk) and exchange that Liverpool football shirt for a Manchester United one or that Westlife CD for something by Bob the Builder. For adults, the QXL auction site has launched a New Year's resolution site where you create your own auction and bid for something new with the proceeds. Sell your loved one's new Anthea Turner fitness video and get a Playstation game instead. Easy! Another site to look at is Webswappers (www.webswappers.co.uk)

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: STREETS AHEAD

READER Jim Roper has e-mailed ONLINE suggesting 192.com (www.192.com) as website of the week. The site is invaluable in tracking down old friends or family, who may have moved or whose address you've lost. It features the latest electoral roll of names and addresses. Jim also has a few suggestions about where else to look.

He says: "I make a great deal of use of 192.com to find people. Then I go to multimap.com (www.multimap.com), type in the post code and get a map of their location. Streetmap.co.uk (www.streetmap.co.uk) is also quite good."

Thanks Jim. More suggestions from ONLINE readers would be more than welcome.