When you are on the elliptical, treadmill, bike, whatever to talk yourself through the workout?? Here is how my conversation went today.

God this thing (elliptical) is kicking my a@@ today. Well, no pain no gain. I don't know if I can do this today. You can stop at 20 minutes and get on the treadmill if you want. Or you can keep going, because you need to spend less time on the elliptical than the treadmill. But, I have nothing going today, so you might as well waste some time on the treadmill. No, this is a much better workout. God, I hate this thing. There goes 150 calories, and my legs are not burning anymore, I can do this today. I need to burn 500 calories like I did yesterday. Boy, I shouldn't have set the bar so high yesterday, now I have to keep that pace up. No, you don't, not if you can't. Yes, you do, no pain, no gain. I wonder when my feet are going to go numb and start burning? Well, when they do, you can get on the treadmill. No, you can't, you just have to work through it. Okay, you can do this, just keep going. Boy, I am burning 100 calories per 7 minutes, that's awesome. There goes 300 calories (on the counter) you are more than 1/2 way there. Ok, you can just go to 400 and then slow down and take it easy the rest of the way. No, you can't, you have your heart rate up nice and high, why waste it? OK, you hit 400, now take it to 500, you just said that is only 7 minutes away, right?? OK,you can do it, yooouuuuu can dooooooooo it. Aahh, 500 calories, ok now you can slow the pace and finish, woo hoo! You made it to 550 calories, today, that is the highest ever. Way to go dumbass, now you set the bar even higher!!

Good luck to y'all in your excercise endeavors and may the demons inside your head not kill each other!!

I don't exactly tell myself anything while on the elliptical, but I mentally and physically break up the session. This is how I get through 40 minutes followed by a 5 minute cool down: First key - music! I program my MP3 player with a variety of up-tempo songs of varying paces. Some songs are faster than others which helps to switch up the intensity (and I can always skip and repeat if I need to). I'm a terrible dancer with a good sense of rhythm (what a paradox!), so ellipticating is like my form of dancing. This makes it so much more enjoyable for me - I can't imagine working out without my own music!

Secondly, the pre-programmed modules (hills, intervals, gluteal 1, 2 & 3) cue you when to switch from forward pedaling to backwards. If you do 40 minutes on the hill setting (like I do), you do 10 minutes forward up the hill, 10 minutes backwards down, 10 minutes forward up & 10 minutes backward down. This helps me look at the smaller goal of finishing the 10 minute stretches (2 minutes left is much easier to swallow than 32).

Sorry - I know this didn't exactly answer your question, but I hope my tips help someone get through their workouts - and maybe even learn to love them!

I wasn't so much looking for an answer to a question, I just thought it was kind of funny after I thought about it!

HadEnough - Oh I soooo have a lot of internal talk when I'm on the eliptical. Yes, I've told myself Oh get to this time and you can get off... and definately told myself that it's kicking my butt.

IT's amazing how your mind will sabotage you sometimes... it's like man, we are all working towards the same goal... why can't I think positive!!!

My internal monologue usually happens more before I hit the treamill, especially when I'm at home. Right now I'm sitting here in a foul mood wanting to go run and hide my head under my covers and have a good cry, but there's the skinny voice inside of my head telling me to get my lard butt on the treadmill.

I am so shallow - my internal monologue goes like this
oh good the eliptical nearest the weights are is free lets jump on that" *starts pedalling*
Right - what music is on the mtv channel *checks on the in built tv*
Nup no good, too much hip hop *ditches ear phones to listen to cd on in the gym*
right music sorted, whose on the treadmill in front of me, hmmmmm he's cute, oh she's running well today, oh another fat person, hello fat person
*loses interest in running people gazes at weight area*
oh he's cute, very cute............hmmmmmm is he in competition or something, how much oil is on his body, ewwwwwwwwwww he's just used the chest press and not wiped it down *not to self take wet wipe over to chest press*
oh look, a girl using the proper weights - woo hoo - go girl
*looks at screen* oh goodness, 15 minutes already, 5 to go
*sticks headset on* and Kanye West song on MTV takes me nicely to 20 minutes
woo hoo, another 20 minutes cardio done, NEXT!

I tend to think can I get to a nice round number - for either calories, km or minutes. And then when I get to a nice round number on one, I find out that I'm a minute or so away from a nice round number for one of the others so I persuade myself to keep going to hit that. And so on.

My son loaded up my mp3 player so I did "I wonder what song is next? Oh I like that ... I wonder what's next? "

Had Enough~ That is so me!!!!! I'm like that with EVERY exercise I do! lol!! Good luck to you!
~Wendy~

Sometimes I tell myself something like "get to 10 minutes and you can get off" then at 10 minutes i tell myself "get to 15 minutes and you can get off" and I keep going to 30 minutes or so. Today, I took my brand new mp3 player and 15 minutes flew by really fast. I think it is a lot easier with a fast beat going in your ear.

I've done alllll of the above ... But one that I have been using more lately, when I run, is to just count 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etc to myself, focus on a spot on the floor and just forget or try to forget everything, it becomes sort of like a meditation, if I start thinking too much I start with the 1-2-3 again... When I run outside alone and no one can hear me, I count out loud , when I meet someone on the street I stop till they pass ...

Mine sounds a lot like Kykaree. I'm a big people watcher. I do that whenever I can.

Sometimes if something's good on the gym tv, which is rare, I try to watch that and not think about it. Or just shut my eyes and day dream.

When I'm on the eliptical which I've recently learned to love, I usually think like this:

Hmmm, I did 45 minutes the other day, I should go for an hour today. I tune into the only tv station my old Sony Walkman can possibly pick up and start moving. Hmmm, these handles aren't picking up my heartrate as usual, am I dead? Oh there we go, hmmm, 79, must be dead, Oh look 10 calories already! Ah now my heart rate is 130, pretty good. Now should I continue the arms going, and watch tv or read my book, Oh I really want to know whats going to happen next. Opps slowing down, Put the book down, check heart rate, oh is my heart rate supposed to be 160, maybe I should slow down again. There we go, hmmm back to the book, what 15 minutes only!!! Sigh. Book, stop looking at the time, oh theres someone I vaguely know, hello familiar person. Back to book, do not look at the time. Whats on TV, hmm, the news boooorrrinnng. Darn they've forgotten to put the music on again. How long now, 35 minutes, Oh thank goodness. Only 10 minutes to go. Back to it, not much longer. Oh finally 2 minutes to go. Ahhh, all done, and over 500 cals burnt, not one hour tho, doesn't matter, oops jelly legs.

ohhhhhh, those were too funny. there was little of me in all of those. now being at a co-ed gym, i do find myself looking to see if there is anyone cute. if there is, i tend to focus on him to get me through. by the time i get on the elliptical, i am down to my last spare 20 minutes. so if igure if i can burn 200 calories in 20 minutes, i've done good. sometimes, if i can't find someone to focus on, i'll look at the tv screens and read what is being said. usually some sort of an entertainment tonight show on about the stars. if not, if i have my music, i try to focus on the songs, if i don't, i try to go into daydreaming mode about what it will be like when i'm skinny again. but i try not to think too much when i'm on a machine.

and i get jelly legs afterwards sometimes too.