How to Keep Your Training Mojo Going

How do you keep your training mojo going?

1.  Find A Training Method That You Love

Let us delve into your psyche.  Having you ever been taught something like art, singing, violin, hockey, football etc., and the teacher keeps on making you do drills that bore the ass off you. Even better, have you ever taken a subject at school and there is no way on this planet you can learn it as it just does not interest you?

This is similar to how your training mojo gets stood against a wall and shot.  You want to get fit. You want to lose weight or whatever it is.  You see a training method that millions of people profess to be the best.  It works, there are photos and proof, plus all the reviews say so.  Week one you love it, week two you stop doing it every other day, week three you avoid a couple of days by week four you dread it.  Why?  Because it is freaking boring as hell.  It is not what you actually want to do.

You started running but 'everyone' tells you running doesn't build muscle and you should be building muscle. You stopped.

You started weight training, but 'everyone' told you to lift heavier until you actually dreaded failing. You stopped.

You started a system like P90Xor any other programme and it was mind blowingly hard.  You can't do the moves and feel defeated.

Stop looking to other people to tell you what is best for you.  Only you can decide this.  If you like running . . RUN.  It is a wonderful thing to do.  Running is a great cardio exercise.  Not only does it get you out and moving, but you do it at your own pace and after a while it becomes not only training but can also be meditative.  If you want to build bigger muscles learn to sprint train.  Research it all it isn't as if there aren't a gozillion articles and books on how to run/sprint/do marathons etc.

Find something you actually love doing and allow yourself all the time you need to become the best you possibly can at it.  People stick to what they love.

2. Learn Your Limit

Always go at a pace that suits you. For instance, if you are, let's say, lifting as heavy as you can, even though it is KG's/LB's behind what you perceive as the weight you should be lifting KNOW YOUR LIMITS.  It is great to push yourself to progress. It is a fool who tries to push themselves beyond what they are capable of too soon. This can lead to serious body damage.


Leave your ego locked away before you start your training.

3.  Stop Trying To Keep Up With The Experts

If you have started any form of training program do not try and keep up with the instructor/pro's.  Learn what you can do with your body and what areas of training you need to progress in.  Use assistance when you train, if needed, such as resistance bands for pullups/dips, blocks in yoga etc.  Any professional athlete/trainer that is good will tell you that you only get good by starting at the beginning and working your body to get better.

4. Beware of Workouts Routines

Ever seen those workouts on-line like this:  

Warrior Workout

400 pushups 

200 lunges 

100 pullups  

300 dips

 40 burpees 

repeat 5 times.  

If you have problems doing 10 pushups then these are not for you!  I have noticed a lot of these type of routines especially in  calisthenics and they are HARD.  As a beginner doing 15 pullups is torturous if not impossible and these routines can leave you feeling like you have failed.  You haven't, you have just taken on too much too soon.

If you want to learn calisthenics make up your own basic routine which should incorporate pushups, squats, pull-ups and dips.  Begin by doing small number sets ie 5 reps of each exercise and repeat for 15 minutes, then you can up your game by competing with yourself.

5. Is This Exercise Helping Or Harming?

There are many exercises out there that are pretty much of no plausible good for your body, they may be popular and may even be practised at some gyms but you may end up injured or cause your body imbalances through ignorance.  If you want to aid your fitness find out about functional movements.  We as humans naturally climb, run, pick up heavy things, swim, walk, dip down, jump, squat but there are certain training methods out there that are very questionable.   As stated above do your research on whether a certain exercise will harm of help.  

6.  Stop Feeding Yourself Mojo Assassination Thoughts

Stop "believing" you can do this and start KNOWING.  Belief is what people have for fairies, unicorns and Santa.  Knowledge is solid.  Know you are getting fitter.  Know that you are getting slimmer.  

Desist with the assassination talk of things are too hard, results are not happening fast enough, you are not good enough or, the worst of all "I can't . . . . ".  You can, you will, you know it.

7. No Pay, Still Gain

Many people stop training as they find a myriad of excuses not to go to the gym ie too expensive, too crowded, too far away, too full of know-it-alls, no parking (really you drive.  Get a bike) etc.  The answer is ludicrously simple.  Train at home in your garden, bedroom, garage, spare room, the choice is yours.   You DO NOT need equipment to start training.  You may progress to building up a home gym, but all you need for now is your body and a maybe a timer. Heck, you don't even need training gear.  You can build your body strength and shape through calisthenic and can do that butt naked if you so chose. 
Push ups, squats, burpees, jumping jacks, plank, yoga need no equipment.

8. Am I There Yet?

When you were a kid on a journey with your parents, did you keep asking "are we there yet?".  Only to be told "NO, WE ARE STILL NOT THERE" and the journey would seem to last a lifetime.  Can you guess what could possibly be stopping you from seeing the results in your body you want?  IMPATIENCE!  

If you have read in a brochure/seen a commercial /noticed a "latest thing" on line that doing XYZ training will get the results YOU want  in 30 days and you truly believe you can drop 15 kgs, get six pack abs and a contoured body and be able to maintain this all from scratch, within that sort of timeline then click your heels 6 times Dorothy as you are no longer in Kansas.  Meanwhile, back in the real world, you have to teach yourself that gentle progress, no matter how slow, is how to keep your body beautiful.  We have to work and enjoy working, at making our bodies our temples.  If you don't like the work, go back to paragraph #1.

9. Stop Comparing Yourself To Others

Unless you are Dana Linn Bailey, Larissa Reis, Matus Valent, Vinn Diesel then you will NOT have their bodies and, if you do, keep an eye on your front window as the police will be there to question you soon.  You keep your mojo ignited by loving your body no matter what stage of the game you are at.  This body you own, in its present condition, is the body that is going to get you to the body destination you are aiming for.  There is no problem in being inspired by what others have achieved, in fact nodding your head and thinking how awesome they have enabled themselves to be can add fuel to your stoked mojo furnace.  Just don't wish to be them and have their bodies.  Know that you are you and are capable of making your fitness, health and body supreme.

10. No One Is Judging you

You are the only person that has any true sway on what you do.  This applies to your body, your education, your career, your happiness etc.  Sure, you can blame others taking away from yourself any power over yourself or your life, but, you are not going to do that as you have an inner strength that is way more dominant than any of this petty stuff.  

If you are hurt or upset by what someone says about you that is your choice.  Yes, you have a choice in all.  Only you allow yourself to be hurt.  Only you allow your mind to dwell on irrelevancies like what someone else may be thinking.  As the saying goes, what others think of you is none of your business.  The sooner you learn you are a supremely powerful person, you are in control of your own thoughts, your own deeds and the only judgement you care about is the one you give yourself.



.. . . . and if you think you are too old, too ill etc just click this link!

To keep your mojo going.  Do what you love, love what you do, allow yourself to enjoy the journey, know you are an amazing capable being and you will get so much out of this.

ENJOY!

Love and hugs

Cathi

YOUR BODY TELLS YOU NOTHING AND YOUR MIND JUST WANTS CAKE (and wine gums)

I have read the PubMed and trainers articles in abundance.  Sat for hours poring over various books telling me which foodstyle life is the best.  I have lived the raw food lifestyle, the vegan lifestyle, the low protein high carb.  I then moved on to try low carb high protein, caffeine fuelled lifestyle.  However,  I have been studying food and its effects on the body for over 5 years and one thing that I keep on hearing/reading is that our bodies shout out at certain times depending on what it needs.

Here I have a huge, nay, brobdingnagian problem with this.  My mind and my body seem to have fallen out.  My mind and my body do not speak.  It is either that or I have a mute body or just a really loud mind. 

When I am afflicted by any ailment such as a cold (which I am nearly dead with as I write), my body seems to be coughing and producing snot, but my mind is screaming:

"EAT CAKE! YOU NEED CAKE (oh and probably some wine gums)".

I cough and splutter and wheeze a bit more and my mind then shouts

"BACON.  THAT'LL CURE YOU, BACON THEN CAKE (oh and probably some wine gums)"

My Question:

Is my mind trying to kill me?  Have I got, instead of a champion of self preservation, some ethereal rogue assassin going from brain to brain popping off people who float, seemingly automatically, toward any cake aisle (or wine gums)?

My Brilliant Theory:

Maybe all these professionals should rephrase.  Our bodies are dumb, mute, speechless and silent witnesses.  Our bodies do not get on with our minds.  I would go so far as to say they totally and utterly ignore each other when we are having our mad, bad food cravings. 

Our bodies do not tell us what food does, it has surpassed speech.  Speech to the body is so yesterday.  The body realises we don't listen and just moved swiftly to "LOOK YOU IDIOT!"

My body is BRILLIANT at showing symptoms of bad eating.  Hell if medals and pointy shiny hats were made to celebrate such a thing my house would be resplendent in hats and badges galore! 

After coffee/wheat/having a cold my eyes do the *wrinkle, crinkle, sag, *

wrinkly, crinkly eyes

If I don't drink enough fresh water my body will, knowing my vanity, just age my face by 2000 years.  As my Nana used to say "Pfff that'll learn you" (she was a strong woman who had no need of grammar!)

My respiratory system quite blatantly heaves and disallows any decent training if I perchance on wheaty badness.

My belly will go onto auto bloat should me and cake party.

Sleep is a thing that will not happen if I have raw cacao drinks after 4 pm.

I say this people.  Don't try to LISTEN to your body,

just look at the bloody thing

If:

• when you stop jumping up and down your body doesn't for another few seconds
• your skin is covered in oily pimples
• you are bloated
• you have nail fungus
• you have so many bags under your eyes Alexander Wang wants to sponsor you
• your skin is 50 shades of grey and definitely not sexy
• your eyes are not bright and clear 
• you look 700 millenia older than you should
• ad infinitum stuff  . . 

This is your body showing you that things are going awry.  THIS is your body transcending the barriers of speech and shoving FACTS in your face.

To conclude. 

Stop trying to get your mind to tell you what to do as your mind just wants cakes (and wine gums).  

Look at what your body is actually showing you.

fuck off mind!

One Thing That Will Make You Succeed In Your Weight Loss

You want to lose weight and just get fit; yet we live in a world where, thanks to the internet, we are bombarded with books, e-books, articles, fitness magazines all selling us their answer to weight loss and fitness. High carb low fat . . no it's low carb high protein . . no it's anything you like but in moderation . . no it's shakes. Fruit is the answer, fruit is bad . . anyone else's head spinning yet? 

Billions of people buy into the pills, potions and quick fixes. Heads up for you people, there is no such thing as a quick fix, unless of course you put the word 'temporary' in front of it. This article is a short and sweet answer to your question "How do I lose weight and get fit forever?" Pour yourself a large glass of cool water, sit back and learn the 1 thing you really need to know. 

WHO IS YOUR STORY ABOUT?

OK, one day you looked at yourself and decide, to pop yourself onto a pair of scales and see how thing are doing . . you screamed/cried/shouted at them, then dragged your bedraggled ego and self image into a room and made up your mind to change things. You may have looked at toned/muscular types on the internet and thought 
"I want to have a body like him/her" 

 NEWSFLASH!! 

You are not going to have a body like theirs because you are not them. You are you. So the very first thing you have done is tell yourself you are someone else! You have right then and their told yourself the only way you are going to look good is by looking like someone who is not you! Ego 0 - Advertising 1 

THINGS TO DO, THINGS TO DO . . 

Right, your mind is made up. You have now plumped your ego/self worth into a positive little ball of energy and you are going to get this shizz done! Let me take a wild swing of a guess at what some of the things on your list may be: 

1. Get up earlier 
2. Drink more water 
3. Exercise at least 2 - 3 times a day 
4. Join a gym
5. Learn yoga 
6. Cut out fats, sugar, fried food, bread, caffeine, sweets, alcohol, fizzy drinks, cakes & pastries 
7. Eat more fruit and vegetables 
8. Go to the gym 8. Do a fitness class 
9. Buy a fitness DVD 
10. Start weight training 

. . .  You may have other things on this list, but I think you get the gist. Is this right so far? WOWZERS, your motivation must be in the sky right now . . go you . . right?

LET ME LOOK INTO MY CHRYSTAL BALL AND PREDICT WHAT HAPPENED NEXT . . . 

Day 1: You made your list, and day one came along  . . you were flying!  You joined a gym, signed yourself up for a couple of classes, went home, made a salad and you are feeling good about yourself.

Day 2:  You are a little hungry, but hey, isn't that to be expected you are cutting down here.  Off to the gym with you. Still feeling good.

Day 4 - 5:  You are absolutely knackered.  You can't figure out why you are in such a bad mood and actually feel a little sad.  Your day at work has been a day from hell and you are late getting home.  You missed your class and, lets face it, you just can't be bothered to go to the gym . . hey you'll go tomorrow.

Day 14:  By now you have had at least 1 - 2 mad binge nights as the craving for bread/something fatty/sugar was driving you round the bend.  You started so well going to the classes but now you are finding it difficult to get the time to go and you are increasingly finding fault with the people in the classes, the way they are taught and how everyone in the gym itself are all doing better than you.

End of the month scenario.  You are now maybe even a little heavier, more depressed and have a little less money.

THE BIG REVEAL

Do you want to know why all of this has been so awful?  Why you have craved so much that depression felt like it was setting in.  Why your list slowly started falling to pieces?

Are you ready for the answer?

Strap yourself in for the big reveal . . as here it is.

You were only meant to start with ONE thing.  Yup . . it really is that simple.

The mistake we all make is to try and do it all at once.  This is a life changing thing you are doing, you can not possibly fix years of body misuse in one week/month/even year.

So, snuffle into your comfy chair and take heart.  It is ALL doable, just not all at once.

What you have to do is start with one thing and stick with it for at least 21 days.  So start with something easy like drinking at least 2 liters of water a day.  Doesn't matter how you do it sips through out the day, 250 ml bottles on the hour for eight hours . . whatever.

Once you have got this as a habit, once you notice that getting up in a morning and checking you have your supply for the day is a natural thing to do then move on to the next thing.

Your New Exercise Plan for the Next Month.  

Find ONE form of exercise to learn and do 15 - 20 minutes high intensity intervals every day for 21 days to a month.  Be it rowing, running, pushups, squats, whatever . . every day set a certain time (for some reason first thing and 7pm are always good times for me) and ensure you do your exercise.  Nothing fancy, not hop skip, jump, pullup pushup blah blah, just something simple that you can do consistently.

THE FOOD, OHHH THE FOOD!

Changing what you eat may be the most challenging part of any fitness goal.  Again use the ONE thing rule to start.  Try by cutting out processed sugar (cooked sugars), nothing else, just processed sugar.  Sure cut down your portions of other things if you can but your main aim is cutting out processed sugar.  Again do this for 1 month. 

It may not be easy, but at least you are only dealing with ONE craving.  To stop yourself going insane you can still eat oranges, apples, melon, strawberries etc, natural fruit sugars are NOT processed!

Then the next month, cut out wheat (nasty bloaty, gut annoying stuff that it is) and so on and so forth.

  

WHICH DIET IS THE BEST

I could sit and give you hundreds of links to various sites that claim their way is the best way.  The very simple truth of it is, if you find a way of eating that suits your life, that you can stick with, that helps you lose weight, lower your cholesterol levels, gives you energy and revitalisation and doesn't leave you clawing the walls, THAT is the right one!

Some people absolutely thrive on the 80/10/10 diet and say it is the only way to exist

Others thrive on the Paleo lifestyle and say THAT is the only way to live

The only diet that is good for you is one that you can make into a lifestyle choice. 

A HEADS UP

Right, you have done your ONE thing.  You have made your healthy eating choice but something is just not working.  

A lot of people (millions) have intolerances and even though you have never had an allergic reaction to anything in your life, you body still may not be able to cope with certain foods.  This is far more prevalent the older we get so here are a three foods that your body has just learnt to hate:

• WHEAT
• GLUTEN
• PROCESSED SUGAR

If you are having real difficulty shedding the pounds, try the ONE method with each of these.  I pretty much guarantee that one of them will be the culprit for your struggles.

LAST BUT BY NO MEANS LEAST . . . 

So far we have covered 

Exercise 

Cravings

Diet

Over Planning

What else is there that can cause you to fail?

I have left the biggest ONE till last

YOUR MENTAL ATTITUDE

There is an old saying:

"WHETHER YOU THINK YOU CAN OR WHETHER YOU THINK YOU CAN'T, EITHER WAY YOU ARE RIGHT"

You have taken stock of most things by now, but one HUGE thing is still to be added to your repertoire to ensure you succeed.  This is so simple and yet the most missed piece of necessary advice..You have to believe you are succeeding, you have to believe you can do this as if you don't, you may as well quit whilst your behind.  

Your mind is the thing that says "let's exercise", you mind is the thing that says "let's eat clean" it is also ONLY YOUR mind that can tell you "this is too hard/I can't do this/I am failing/I'm never going to reach my goals . . . " and worst sentence your mind can possibly say "I GIVE UP!!"

OH NO YOU DON'T!! 

NOT ON MY WATCH!!

From this moment on you are going to tell yourself you CAN do this.  Sure you may go awry every now and again, we all do that!  You are going to get right back on track and start again, and again, and if need be again to infinity.  You are never going to give up.  Why?  Because it's simple 

Effort + belief = results

We are not looking at a 90 day transformation miracle, we are looking for a lifetime of getting fitter, healthier and happier!

Try different ways of training.  Learn as much as you can about nutrition (be warned the world of science has not made a definitive ONE way on this, but you have to make your choice) use your noggin, if it sounds like a pile of houey it generally is!  In general terms the simple meal of small amount of meat (obviously if you are vegan, veggie that is not necessary we all know all fruit and veggies contain enough proteins to go at), lots of greens/salad and fruit.  If you have a sugar craving, grab a couple of banana's.

Well, before this turns into a book I should finish.  I hope this opened your eyes and mind to how to be a complete success.  Any questions, just ask . . 

MY LAST SENTENCE . . . 

You can't fail, if you never give up

How To Survive Divorce

How to survive divorce with your sanity intact and your happiness beast mode on, is the subject de jour (ooh hark at me and my french ways).

Well I have been there and done that so thought it only polite to share the "how to" bit.

THE BLAME GAME

The issue that first hits the stumps is the

"Who's fault is it"

No matter what you would love to say on this one, whether it be a cheating husband/wife, one half saying the other "just doesn't understand" the answer is very, very simple and the sooner you get this the quicker your happiness and life status quo will return.

THERE IS NO BLAME, PEOPLE JUST CHANGE!

Now, to the spurned lover this will sound incredibly harsh and even somewhat unfair, but it is, and always will be, the truth.

We as humans are ever evolving creatures, I shall put myself in the petri dish here for analysis.   I am a lover of this thing we call life, I enjoy it and think it there to be enjoyed, however my idea of enjoyment and my ex-husbands were quite different.  He loved playing on gaming devices, going to the pub and basically not being very near me.  I on the other hand am a tactile person and had a rosy picture in my head of family days out at the weekend, walking together, cycling together, getting fit together . . . . it took me 18 years to realise my dream would never come true.

The main turning point was realizing the vast chunk of my life had been spent in a pretty much exercise free zone.  Yes, I walked the dog and went pootling with my daughter's on the bike but never even realised our local swimming pool had a gym, and, even if I did would have considered it a Men Only zone.  Skip on a few years to 38 and suddenly I realise I am so unfit it is ridiculous and have spent way too much of my life wishing to be a different shape.  I start looking into fitness . . very cautiously you understand, this was an alien planet as far as I was concerned.  Skip to 39 I made a promise to myself to be fit for 40, this is when my whole world suddenly got turned on its head.  I trained hard, very hard, in retrospect TOO hard I lost ALL of my excess body weight, but in doing so a new passion had arisen, another crack in the ice of an already globally warmed iceberg in the marriage, I adored training, I was hooked.  I wanted more knowledge about it and here lay another issue for this was yet another passion that was NOT shared with my husband.  He was a construction worker and considered lugging plaster boards up and down the place good enough exercise for him.  So, the petri dish develops more globs in it as my changes kick in.  I am no more the happy little round house wife that cooks meals and hopes her hubby will be back before 8pm, I am now a very happy woman realising a passion and realising that her husband is not and never has been the man she actually wanted.  I realise I just don't love him.

Who is to blame here?  Me for wanting more out of life or him for not providing it?  Answer neither of us, we were just different beings with different needs and passions.  No one was to blame, life just happens and we have to deal with that.

 The man I married was not my soul mate, no matter how hard I tried to bully him into it.  As you can see we are both at fault as we were a) not living the life we truly wanted and even worse b) trying just to "tick along" as society says married people with children should stay together for the children's sake.  I say STUFF THAT!!

WE HAVE TO STAY TOGETHER FOR THE CHILDREN 

NO YOU DON'T!!

Ahh the ego such a pampered lover.  It tells both you and your partner the best thing you can do, even though your marriage/relationship is in tatters, is to stay together for children as this is what society dictates.  Yes, of course it is the best thing.  Just like if a child is growing up on the Gaza Strip it may as well stay there in times of non bombing and violence as that is what it is used to!  Sod moving the child to Barbados where there is a chance of peace, tranquility and somewhere to relax, readjust and focus on THEIR little lives.  Let's keep them in the purgatory of being pulled from one parent to the other, constantly seeing or hearing the two people they love rip each other to pieces and having to deal with all the whispered slurs from one, or boths parent about the other.  Let them have their whole childhood focussed, not on their study, their passions or their future but on your messed up relationship with each other . . . anybody seeing a problem yet?

The best thing for you is just the same as the best thing for your child.   MOVE ON.  Yes a divorce is hard on all parties involved there is just no getting around that, it hurts, but here is the readjustment point . . EVERYONE HEALS!  Your children will get through the mess quicker if they are not being used as weapons ie "I'll take the children away from you if you [insert random demand]".  Why not put on your big grown up pants and sit with your child and find out how they feel.  It is worth noting your ego may take the biggest kicking of its life at this point.  Let them tell you who they want to live with for now.

 . . . back to me, my children wanted to stay with their father because he had the big house and a better job.  Fair enough!  I got to see my youngest daughter a few times a week.  Don't get me wrong it hurt like a red hot knife through my soul, but, after precisely 3 months my eldest daughter had moved out to live on her own and my youngest daughter was pleading to live with me, which I grabbed with both hands it has to be said.  It turns out a big house and wallet don't provide the things they truly wanted.  I now live very happily in the smallest house you can imagine with my new partner (who really IS my soul mate) and my youngest daughter.  I never asked for a penny in child maintenance, told my solicitor I did not want any of my husbands earning, I even gave my husband the house we had built, (later found out he had not been paying the mortgage so had to sell it).  The point here is, your marriage is defunct, you have to move on for the sake of your sanity and, if you have children, for the sake of their future.  If you are using your partner's income as your own then it is time for you to stand on your own two feet or at least come to a FAIR decision, but, I guess that bit should be left to the solicitor. Remember the more money you get through the divorce the chances are the richer your solicitor will be!  If you are in the UK and using Legal Aid and get some settlement in the end from a sale of house or whatever, between the solicitor and Legal Aid they will rip as much of their losses back from you as they can in my case £7,000+!  

The moral of today's little literary outpouring is;

We have to learn to move on with our lives.  Stagnating in any situation that makes you unhappy will turn to depression, which in turn will end in illness, it is how our bodies and minds symphonically work.  Surely it is better to take responsibility for your own life, to live by design not by default, to stop waiting for others to pick up your slack and to realise the best money to have in your pocket is not that gleaned from someone else by a solicitor, but that you have made by yourself.  Divorce is as hard or as easy as you want it to be, the trick is not to push so hard at each other but learn to bend without breaking.  Life is full of lessons and we just have to be aware enough to realise they are being taught.

Right, I am off now to hug my soul mate and make my daughter (who has just passed her triple science exam with 100% allowing her to take it as her GCSE triple option, which in turn allows her to further her life into becoming a vet) her dinner before I cycle into town to teach a fitness class.

Be happy, lose the ego, love life.

Life Is Too Short For Khaki

One day you are 18 full of life, know everything you need to know about the world, how people work and what you want to do with it all . . then 22 years later you wake up confused, not knowing what the hell is going on or how any of it works, and that is where the fun starts.

I have had a colourful life so far involving living abroad, living in London, travelling the world on my own, then back to the UK to have babies, get married, build my own home, get divorced, get fat, get fit, get fat again and am still in the process of getting fit but this time doing it rather better than before (even have a teeny bootcamp I teach) then on to find out all about life and how I really tick.  

So why this literary vomit? You may be asking.  Well, for one thing I have learned a couple of things, tricks et al that should be shared as there may be one person, probably living alone, with a dog called Herbert that needs to read this shit.  That person needs to know that brown is a crap colour to have on your walls, matching khaki trousers and top are not sexy and look so dated whether you are male or female and should only be employed as a garment of choice if you are in the military and need to hide behind other faded green things.  Life is just too short to be spent wandering around blending into ponds and privet hedges. Oh and a note to goths (yup been there done that), black doesn't stand out either and for your information you are not alternative, it has been going on now for WAYYY too long for that.  If you want to be alternative do IT  but is "alternative clothing" really to be found in a catalogue?  NO you should be brandishing your own uniqueness on the world!  Go forth and get brandishing.

So as this is my opening gambit to this my latest attack on the internet I shall off and leave you with this thought.

No one sees a grey cloud and thinks "that is amazing, that is gorgeous, look at that"  however everyone who sees a rainbow does!