Joanna Hall is something of a health and fitness guru-more than likely you've seen or heard her on television or radio. Joanna Hall's Step by Step Guide to Weight Loss CD-ROM is a weight management programme covering exercise and healthy eating, and provides plans that can be followed over periods of six, eight or 10 weeks. You need to give the software quite a bit of information about yourself-a range of measurements (including height and weight), what you like to eat (do you include read meat, for example) and how (on the run, at home, at work). You also need to tell it what days you are able to exercise. Once this information entered you are provided with a menu comprising a two-week eating plan that you rotate throughout your programme. You also get two exercise regimes, one of which involves physical activity (including jogging, skipping, stair climbing, walking) and the other comprising resistance sessions (exercises to stretch and strengthen different parts of the body). You can pick and choose meals from the provided database to vary the food intake and change exercises to suit your requirements. To keep you focused each week you also get a task to focus on-week one's task is to sort out your water intake. Joanna Hall's Step by Step Guide to Weight Loss is an all round programme which is flexible enough for you to tailor to your requirements, yet rigid enough to have the desired effect. The only irritation is the computerised voice of 'Active Annie' your on-board help system. [+]

Takes the guesswork out of diet and nutrition. Easy to use assessment Individual Diet Plan. Designed to meet the needs of your body. Designed by SENSE, specialists in Nutrition, Health & Performance. Results within 48 hours. Personal diet plan, which includes fantastic healthy lifestyle tips. On-going support & expert advice available through web-site. Includes access to VIP area and your own interactive energy and weight trackers! Fantastic results more energy, better health, optimal weight! Find out which foods are right for you.

If you feel as if you have spent the last month chained to your desk, a makeover may be what you need. But why go to all the hassle of leaving your home, when it can now be done without anyone touching a hair on your head? This supposedly rhetorical question is the premise of this slick new CD-ROM, which promises you a complete new image-the only catch being that it's a virtual one. The idea is, you scan a picture of yourself into your PC and then the fun begins. There are over 350 hairstyles to choose from, and unlimited hair colours, plus a complete make-up set and the added possibility of a change of eye colour. Style yourself with hats, earrings and necklaces. Then, just to show that there is more to this "new you" than meets the eye, you can blend your image onto the cover of a magazine, print it up and e-mail or show it to all your friends. This CD-ROM is fast and funky, with great graphics and decent quality visuals. Of course, if you are going to spend all this time sorting yourself out with a virtual makeover and choosing a new look, there's no reason to not give yourself the real thing too. -Toby Green.

Getting fit can be quite a challenge. If you think you are fit already, then this CD might be enough to convince you otherwise. Produced in conjunction with the Royal Marines, it includes some of the toughest exercises and training regimes you'll find anywhere. You begin with the software by completing a basic set of fitness tests. Then it will set itself to suit your current fitness level. The software automatically designs a week by week regime that should make you fitter if you follow it. You keep a record of your performance, and complete regular tests to see how you are progressing. It is a good thing that you don't have to start at the sharp end as Royal Marine recruits do, though you can skip over and take a look at what they would be doing during the same week of their training as you are currently on. In addition to the exercises, there is advice on completing different kinds of exercises, information about the clothing and other equipment you'll need to get fit, a database of information about the Royal Marines, guidance on healthy eating, and even some first aid tips. Fighting Fit might not make you into a Royal Marine, but it should help you get fitter than you are already, and provides a lot more than just a raw exercise plan. [+]

If you're on the lookout for a new hair style but unsure what will suit you, Schwarzkopf Hair Stylist Plus could come to your aid. You'll need a digital photo of yourself, preferably taken passport-photo style with you looking straight at the camera. Once the photo is in the software you can play around with different hairstyles and hair colours. There are over 500 styles to choose from for men, women and children, and you can choose straight or curly styles and then narrow down by styles that suit particular face types. You can even specify whether you want a specific length of new hairdo, and classify your needs as classic, romantic, sporty or evening. The alternative is to look through the whole database of styles, trying any that take your fancy. As well as choosing a style, you can decide on one of over 50 different colours for your new hair. When you've found a style and hair colour that suits, you can print it for your stylist to copy, or send it via e-mail to a friend. This could be handy if you'd like others to help make a judgement with you-or if you've had a go at giving an unwitting friend a new hairstyle and want to show them (and all your friends) the result. -Sandra Vogel.

Everyone needs advice about health, and this authoritative electronic reference from the BMA could replace many a well-thumbed medical dictionary. It combines several books in one, sensibly arranged to make it easy to find what you are looking for. In addition to a dictionary of symptoms, the contents include an atlas of the body, a guide to first aid and emergencies, background information on some common diseases and advice on positive health and caring for others. The approach is thus thoroughly modern, advising how to live healthily as well as what to do when something is wrong. The self-diagnosis section gives you advice and information about particular symptoms. You can start by selecting the nearest description from a lengthy list, or choose by pain site or body system. For example, you could choose "chest pain" as a pain site, or "respiratory symptoms" from the body systems screen, or "difficulty breathing" from the A-Z list. Having chosen your starting point, you enter a flowchart where you answer questions about your condition to narrow down the causes. If the possibilities are serious you are advised in clear terms to phone your doctor straight away. In addition, the CD offers more thorough search facilities than a book's index, and you can thread your way through cross-references with a single mouse click. [+]