Walk into Maureen Allem’s Skin, Body &amp; Health Renewal clinic in upmarket Illovo in Johannesburg, and it feels like setting foot in a furniture showroom catalogue. It’s all pretty pastels, crystal, chandeliers, silver cutlery and dreamy drapes.
Aesthetics – of body and décor – is a consistent theme here. For a customer walking in with hopes of body rejuvenation, the setting does half the job.
Allem materializes in a stunning turquoise kaftan. At age 56, she is perhaps the best advertisement of her booming practice. Her skin is tight, flawless and glowing.
Her non-surgical, integrative/anti-ageing and weight loss company is in its tenth year. Allem has focused on treating ageing with facial and body rejuvenation techniques.
But the outer appearance, she says, is only one side of the story. She recommends the holistic approach incorporating inner health as well.
“The whole new buzzword in medicine is ‘functional’ and personalizing your lifestyle,” she says.
It’s hard to keep up with Allem’s studied descriptions, in breathless sentences, of the underlying causes of most disease and ageing issues.
“Optimize your vitamin D…optimize your liver…70 percent of all disease starts in the gut…”
The South Africa-born Allem was a general practitioner in a provincial hospital for 10 years, followed by a career conducting lifestyle assessments for executives, before she started her own practice in 2000 in her Hyde Park home offering botox and filler treatments.
Her life – and success – didn’t have a linear narrative though. She was in her third year of medicine when she dropped out to get married, becoming “a farmer’s wife” in South Africa’s Free State province.
“I was sewing curtains and playing bridge [on the farm]. Things were not well in the marriage. I realized I made a big mistake and wanted to go back to medicine. I had a two-year-old and a five-month-old [children]. I went to speak to the dean [of my medical institution]. I was 24, and he said, ‘it will be impossible’. I had to find a house in Sandton and adjust to a new life.”
Allem completed her medicine and today, runs 17 renewal clinics across South Africa, including six in Cape Town. She owes it to her team of doctors.
“It’s important to surround yourself with intelligent people; people who are not intimidated by you. Get geniuses around you…and embrace what you love best,” she advises.
And to the women wanting to enhance their looks, she says: “Age is just a number. Fix yourself up.”
<h2>Crowning Glory</h2>
<h5>Steven Turpin, Creative Design Team Educator of Morroccanoil, was in South Africa recently to launch a new line. Here, he shares tips on hair care.</h5>
Moroccanoil specializes in oil-infused hair treatments and an extended line of luxury hair products.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30734 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-PS-Shutterstock.com_-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-PS-Shutterstock.com_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-PS-Shutterstock.com_-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-PS-Shutterstock.com_-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-PS-Shutterstock.com_-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-PS-Shutterstock.com_.jpg 680w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Give us some tips on how to have the best hair? 
Turpin: “Healthy hair starts with a healthy scalp. Many of us forget about treating and maintaining the scalp. Our balancing result-driven scalp treatments will balance sebum levels in dry and oily scalp, exfoliate and cleanse. Massaging the product once a week will increase blood flow, feed the hair follicle and lead to strong healthy hair growth. Using good quality shampoo and conditioner and considering a deep treatment a few times a month if needed will ensure gorgeous hair all year round.” 
– Jessica Ramoshaba

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‘Fix Yourself Up’

<ol>
<li>Thermogenic supplementation: Sports supplements are growing in popularity; thermogenics for example are stimulants like caffeine and raspberry ketone that increase the body’s natural heat and energy production. They burn fat best.</li>
<li>Green tea: The Asian fat killer is back. This all-natural hot drink is known for its fat-burning and cleansing properties. It’s one of the cheapest and easiest ways to kick up your metabolism.</li>
<li>HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the new way to throw a quick workout into your day and burn fat. HIIT workouts never last longer than 15 minutes. Training at high intensity for shorter periods boosts the metabolic rate. A basic HIIT workout can be a 100-meter run at 100% intensity and a 20-second rest period; perform this pattern for 10 rounds.</li>
<li>Avoid crash diets: These diets help drop the kilos fast but at the expense of the right nutrition. Crash diets not only burn fat but also throw away muscle – not good if you want that bikini body.</li>
<li>Keep it fresh: When buying fruits and vegetables, remember to buy fresh, not frozen. When cooking your fresh produce, don’t overcook, it will lose its nutritional value.</li>
<li>Stay hydrated: Keeping up one’s water intake and staying away from sugary cold drinks is absolutely vital to the fat-burning process.</li>
<li>Take the stairs: Avoid the elevator, run up the stairs instead. You have nothing to lose. You will burn fat as well as end up feeling better through the day.</li>
<li>Protein is power: Keeping up a high-protein intake provides the body with long-lasting energy through the day. High-protein diets are not just for professional bodybuilders anymore.</li>
<li>Get some sleep: Sleep is very important in the fat-burning process; it allows the body to recuperate from the daily stresses.</li>
<li>Hit the iron: Weight-training is now widely accepted as one of the leading ways to lose weight and has been proven to burn more calories per hour than any form of cardio. One of the best pieces of equipment to use is the kettlebell, a Russian weight with an odd shape that requires the body to use more muscles even to manoeuvre.</li>
</ol>

Tag: Body

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

‘Fix Yourself Up’

10 Ways To Boost Your Metabolism And Burn Fat