You and I both know that we have all planned next weekend by Monday mid-morning. We know which parties we will be at and we have our restaurants booked. Come Friday, 17h00, gym and healthy eating goes out the window. Basically, some of us wave a flag around that looks like this:

What’s scary is we have probably been waving that flag around since our first varsity O-week, and suddenly it’s a decade later and it is still flapping proudly in the summer breeze.

Ah yes, the costs of partying hard in our youth – it’s always the fun things that are bad for us, isn’t it?

That’s okay. You only live once, so enjoy yourself. Whilst people often say ‘prevention is better than cure’, you can’t sit at home every weekend with your seven cats and your wonderful set of needles and yarn. What will you ever tell your grandchildren one day?

The reality, however, is that drinking and partying and smoking can make you look and feel old. No one wants to be 30 years old and get mistaken for their mother.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start reversing some of the damage of your youth.

For example, you may have smoked two packs a day for the last 20 years – within a few weeks of quitting you would notice a vast difference. The body has the amazing ability to renew and heal itself, if it has the right support.

Whilst the body can handle a lot more ‘punishment and torture’ when you are young, fit and physically active, it does not mean the effects go unnoticed. Excessive alcohol, smoking, drugs (of any kind), stress, and too little sleep all contribute to accelerated ageing and has negative effects on your body both internally and externally.

Visible signs of ageing such as fine lines and wrinkles, cellulite, dull and sallow skin (due to a lack of oxygen), excess weight etc. are a few of the external signs, but internally your body has to process all the chemicals and this places extra strain on your liver, circulatory system and can affect immune, heart and memory health.

Want to start making a few changes? Here are some tips:

• Drink at least 2L of water per day for optimal functioning of your kidneys. You have no idea the difference water will make.
• Even in sunny South Africa our bodies don’t get enough vitamin D.  Sit in the sun unprotected for ten minutes every third day (not every day) and supplement with vitamin D3.
• Pop to a Body Renewal Clinic so you can chat to a integrative health practitioner for a full anti-ageing body screening. You should be doing this once a year anyway, and they will set you in the right direction with regards to supplements and vitamins.
• Avoid self-supplementation. Without a comprehensive medical screening by a health doctor, you are unaware of all your deficiencies and therefore won’t know which supplements to take. If you mix the wrong supplements you can deactivate their benefits and waste your money.
• Always take your supplements, especially your essential fatty acids supplements like Omega 3 fish oil with a meal to increase absorption.
• Make sure your supplementation includes an anti-oxidant like Pycnogenol which protects the body from destructive cell and tissue-damaging free radicals.
• Ladies, if you are taking calcium for bone support make sure you are taking vitamin K2 to ensure the calcium is directed to your bones and not to your arteries.

Thankfully you can pop to Body Renewal and treat a few ailments once your partying is over. They will help you glow and help get rid of smoker’s lines amongst other troubles.

Have a listen HERE to Dr Toni van der Merwe from Skin Body Renewal – she chats about how to prolong your youth with correct lifestyle choices and focusses on the long-term damage that can be caused by the inclusion of too many toxins in the diet and in recreational or addictive use.

Also, a brilliant interview with the man behind Skin and Body Renewal, Victor Snyders on How To Balance your Ego.