I once saw a meme on Instagram that asked, “Which is longer: a microwave minute or a treadmill minute?” Spoiler alert: it’s the latter. When you heat food, you at least know the end is near, but on a treadmill one minute feels like a lifetime. So, yes, I’d rather watch popcorn  circle around a million times until its done. But, I have fitness goals and popcorn doesn’t help achieve them (sigh). So, as seen on Instagram, outside of having a great running coach, read below to learn about how I stay motivated on the treadmill.

Switch it up – On some days I do long runs at a slow pace to build endurance and other times I do intervals which keeps me alert and challenged. I don’t always like the hamster-wheel feeling that comes with steady cardio, so sprints are a great way to stay focused — there’s no mindless watching of the T.V. or texting friends back. You have no choice but to stay focused. Also, the benefit of doing high-intensity interval routines is you only need 10-20 minutes (as long as you’re doing an all-out effort) and you continue burning calories long after your workout. Intervals should be about 15-20 seconds followed by up to 1-3 minutes rest, depending on the duration of your interval. But, don’t toss steady state cardio aside, just alternate.

Build a dope playlist – I do my hardest when I’m listening to music I love. Research has shown that music provides a significant boost in performance and strengthens positive feelings. According to the National Center for Health Research, “studies show that faster-paced music tends to help improve athletic performance when a person engages in low-to-moderate level exercise, either by increasing distance traveled, pace, or repetitions completed.”

Imagine your best self – Visualizing the level of physical fitness I want to achieve has really helped me stay motivated, especially when I revisit old videos and images to see how far I’ve come. I also follow real people on social media who are on their fitness journey vs fit influencers with hard-to-attain body types. Sometimes when I want to skip the gym, I scroll through Instagram, see their posts and get motivated.

As an added bonus, I recently teamed up with FlexIt, and app that let’s you pay only for the time you use at the gym. For a limited time, use my code DeliaFlex to get free access to gyms across the U.S. and crush your treadmill goals.