More and more people like bicycling and it is no surprise. It is fun, healthy and good for the environment. Maybe that's why there are about 1.4 billion bicycles and only about 400 million cars on roads worldwide today. Bikes can take you almost anywhere, and there is no oil cost!

    Get on a bicycle and ride around your neighbourhood. You may discover something new all around you. Stopping and getting off a bike is easier than stopping and getting out of your car. You can bike to work and benefit (受益) from the enjoyable exercise without polluting the environment. You don't even have to ride all the way.

    Folding (可折叠的) bikes work well for people who ride the train. Just fold the bike and take it with you. You can do the same on an airplane. A folding bike can be packed in a suitcase. You can also take a common bike with you when you fly. But be sure to look for information by accessing on airline websites. Not all airlines are bicycle-friendly to travellers.

    Health Benefits of Bicycling:

    It helps to prevent heart diseases.

    Bicycling helps to control your weight.

    A 15-minute bike ride to and from work three times a week burns off five kilos of fat in a year. Bicycling can improve your mood (心情).

    Exercise like bicycling has been shown to make people feel better, more relaxed and self-confident. Bicycling is healthier than driving.

    Obesity (肥胖症) is becoming a problem in our busy society, almost one in three American adults is now considered to be obese. Children obesity is also at an all-time high.

    Obesity means being very overweight. If you are obese, you have too much body-fat. If you eat more food than your body can use, this will make you put on weight. Food that your body does not need will be stored (储存) as fat by your body.

    The following are the major factors (因素) that increase the risk of obesity.

    What you eat plays a major role in weight gain. Eating a lot of fattening food such as hamburgers, sweet drinks, ice creams and other sweet food can increase the risk of becoming obese.

    If you do not do enough exercise, you will put on weight as the food you eat is not being used to make energy for physical activities.

    The chances of your being obese are greater if your parents are obese.

    There are many psychological (心理的) factors that cause people to eat too much. People who are worried, unhappy or bored will often eat to make themselves feel better. This is known as comfort eating.

    Age is another factor, as you tend (趋于) to be less active when you get older. When you get older, you need to eat less, and if you do not eat less, you will put on weight.

    Obesity can cause many health problems such as heart problems, high blood pressure and many other serious medical conditions.

How to keep on your exercise plan during winter? Here I'll give you some suggestions.

To stay active during the winter, you should first make it as easy as possible to do your exercise. Second, make something different before you {#blank#}1{#/blank#}doing exercise. The following advice will give you some ideas for making winter exercise more comfortable and more enjoyable.

Put your sports clothes in the dryer. If you want to exercise outside, you might keep the clothes in the dryer for a few minutes before that. It's often harder to {#blank#}2{#/blank#}when it's cold outside. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}clothes fresh from the dryer is just one way to get your body warm.

Take a hot shower. If it's really cold outside, you might even try a quick shower to get yourself warm before you do exercise.

Walk indoors. Walking is a good way to {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. To get out of cold weather of winter, you can simply walk indoors, probably in the living area of your room. Walking indoors makes you {#blank#}5{#/blank#}and gives a warm temperature to do it.

Feet are an important part of you. Without them, you couldn't stand up, walk or run around. Your feet work so hard that sometimes they get sweaty (出汗).

Think of a hot summer day when you have been walking around all afternoon. Your feet have been in those trainers for a long time! The moment you take off your shoes, you feel good and relaxed, but your feet smell bad. You may think it is because of the sweat. But in fact, sweat itself has no smell. It's the bacteria (细菌) on your skin (皮肤) that mix with it and gives off a bad smell.

Bacteria love dark and wet places like the inside of sweaty shoes. The sweatier you get, the more bacteria there will be. When you wear your shoes, bacteria will have a good meal on your feet. They eat dead skin cells from your skin and then leave a kind of waste called organic acids (有机酸). These organic acids smell bad. Things will become better if you wear cotton socks.

There is an English saying:" Laughter is the best medicine." Until {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, few people took the saying seriously. Now however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They find that it {#blank#}2{#/blank#} people's blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing. It {#blank#}3{#/blank#} works the stomach and even the feet. So laughter exercises the body and improves people's health.

As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics; in which they help to improve their patients' condition {#blank#}4{#/blank#} encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.