【推荐1】It is hard to say I was a runner years ago. The longest I had ever run was 5 km. What’s more, I didn’t like running. No matter how hard I tried, every so often I would fasten my old shoes, walk out of the house with heavy steps, get less than a mile in and wonder why I was bothering, especially when there are many more satisfying ways of exercising.

Before last summer, I had never taken part in any kind of race at all. But at the end of July, I completed a triathlon(三项全能)after two weeks’ training. At the end of it came the run—which ended up more like a walk. Then I realized something about it attracted me. The extremely painful fun of doing something I hated and was unprepared for turned out to be an excitement. The difficulty felt like something to test my abilities.

When an invitation of the Berlin Marathon dropped onto my desk a few weeks after the triathlon, it felt like a change of fate. After the triathlon, I didn’t say I should start running at once. Was it because I hate running? In fact, in course of running I enjoyed the joy of exceeding my limits. I felt necessary to find out again where those limits might lie. So I said yes.

Training for a marathon often takes at least 20 weeks or more. The training plan becomes something to stop me worrying when the race seems too frightening. This worry feels impossible to avoid, but there is something equally sure about the training plan: if I follow it, then I have done everything I can; if I do everything I can, then I won’t regret what comes at the end.

【推荐2】Tips For Staying Active Over the Holidays

The holiday season is here, which for most people, signals a departure from their typical exercise regime（方式，管理制度）. Being physically active on a consistent basis can be challenging during this period especially as we travel to see relatives or host friends in our homes.     1     Exercise is also known to give you an energy boost and reduce stress levels. Considering these, you can take following tips for making physical activities regular in your lifestyle, through holidays and beyond.

    2    

This is the first rule of any sustainable exercise routine. If your workout feels like another task on your to-do list, it’ll be difficult to stick with. Therefore, be creative in identifying physical activities. Dance. Garden. Take a yoga class online. All of these count as physical activities, and even small amounts add up.

Find breaks to move throughout the day.

    3     Taking three 10-minute walks during the day —one in the morning, another during your lunch and another after dinner —produces similar benefits to spending 30 minutes at the gym. In other words, taking short movement breaks throughout your day makes for a more active lifestyle and helps meet your goals.

Make it a priority.

Most of us are managing countless responsibilities every day, so it’s vital to consider physical activities an important part of your day.    4     And, let others know when you’ll be busy exercising and how they can help you find time to do so. Having the support from others is an important element of success.

Be realistic.

Most are overly optimistic when first mapping out a workout plan. In fact, exercise isn’t necessarily at maximal intensity to be effective. Besides, you don’t have to exercise before, during and after work every day in order to hit your goals.    5    

【推荐3】Yoga (瑜伽) is an ancient practice that helps create a sense of union body, mind, and spirit. It brings us balance. After a long time of practicing yoga, you no longer just practice it — you love it.

Yoga becomes part of your physical life. Your body grows stronger, more toned (有弹性的), and more flexible as you move from one pose to another. I spent a week in Mexico at a yoga retreat, and it was the first vacation on which I lost weight. “Rather than building muscles, yoga builds muscle tone,” says Shakta Kaur Khalsa, author of KISS Guide to Yoga. “Because yoga helps maintain a balanced metabolism (新陈代谢), and it also helps to control weight. Additionally, yoga stretches muscles lengthwise, causing fat around the cells disappear, thus losing weight.”

I do yoga poses throughout the day. After hours at my computer, I stretch my stiff shoulders and arms. When I need an increase in energy, I do energizing poses. When I am feeling exhausted at the end of the day, I do restorative (恢复体力的) poses.

Yoga becomes part of your mental life. Yoga teaches you to focus on breathing while you hold the poses. This attention to breath is calming; it dissolves (使消除) stress and anxiety. I use yogic breathing on the tennis court, in the dentist’s chair, and when I’m stuck in traffic.

You should always leave a yoga practice feeling energized, but not tired. If you feel tired after yoga, it means you spent the time “fighting” yourself, trying to force yourself into poses. In yoga, you “surrender” to the poses by letting go of the tension.

【推荐1】Some China Podcasts (播客) to Listen to

Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer to China, there’s always more to learn about this awesome country. To help in your never-ending thirst for knowledge, we’ve rounded up some most entertaining China-focused podcasts that hit on everything from history to business.

Tech Buzz China by Pandaily

Tech Buzz China by Pandaily is a technology podcast about China’s innovations. Its co-hosted by Rui Ma and Ying Lu, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in the country. They share and discuss the most important tech news from China every week.

The China History Podcast

Started in 2010, Laszlo Montgomery presents topics that cover 5, 000 years of Chinese history and culture. The show has a lot of unknown and interesting history lessons that help provide more color as to why China is the way it is. Topics like the history of Tang poetry, or the Hokkien people are analyzed and explored.

China Untold

The China Untold podcast is a program that aims to introduce listeners to lesser-known stories from the Middle Kingdom. From urban tales and extinct religions to China’s role in the exploration of space, this podcast hosted by Matt Bossons, is your essential guide to the unusual and wonderful aspects of the world’s most highly populated nation.

The Wasai Show

The Wasai Show is hosted by Ne to Trevino from Mexico and Alice He who is a local Chinese. In each episode, stories are collected from listeners about a topic and shared in a funny way by both comedians. The first half of the show is presented in English, followed by a Chinese section.

【推荐3】Years ago, if a teenager had some problems in his or her life, he or she might write in his or her diary. Now a teenager with the same problems might go onto the Internet and write about them in a blog. In many ways, a diary and a blog are almost the same. So, what makes a blog different from a diary?

The biggest difference is that a blog is much more public than a diary. Usually, a teenager treats his or her diary like a book full of secrets. Both diaries and blogs tell what happened to the writer that day.

I have a little sister, and sometimes I go online to read her blog. She writes about things like waking up early for swimming practice and not studying enough for her chemistry exam. When I was her age, I wrote about the same things, but only in my diary. Then, after I finished writing. I would hide my diary in a secret place because I was worried that my sister might read it!

Because a blog is such a public way of writing. It has both good and bad points. The biggest problem with a blog is that anyone can read what you write. If I am angry with a friend during school and write something bad about her in my diary, she will never know. However, if my sister writes something bad about a friend, that friend may read her blog and get angry. So we have to be very careful of what we write.

A blog has good point, of course. People choose to write in blogs because they know that their friends will read what they write. If I am feeling sad one day and write in my diary, “Nobody cares about me.” No one will know about it. However, if my sister writes the same words in her blog. Her best friends will quickly and tell her how much they like her.

If people are careful about what they write, blogs are a very good way to write about everyday life. However, I still prefer my old diary!