We know how important protein is for daily functions, health and performance, however, have we gone too far? Depends on your purpose and goals. This is a nice review of the value of protein and how to get the maximum value with it in your diet.

http://www.gettingfittogether.com/daily-protein-requirements-for-men-and-women/#!288

Daily Protein Requirements for Men and Women

By Contributor on July 22, 2015

What are the Daily Protein Requirements for Men and Women? The average man in the United States consumes about 100 grams of protein per day, while the average woman takes in approximately 70 grams, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The amount of protein you need daily really is dependent on your gender and activity level, as well as your goals because this determines your total caloric intake which has an effect on the amount of protein you need to consume.

Daily Protein Requirements for Men and Women

The Institute of Health and Nutrition finding is that for general health, men should get around 56 grams of protein per day and that women should get around 46 grams. It is also important to know that the human body cannot properly utilize more than 20 grams of protein in one consumption. Therefore the grams should be spread out throughout the day in smaller doses. When consuming protein it needs to be of higher quality to ensure that you are getting the nine essential amino acids that are needed but your body cannot produce on its own. Meat, fish and poultry provide all of the amino acids, but if you are a vegetarian, you can combine foods, such as rice and beans, or whole-grain bread and peanut butter, to get a complete array of amino acids. Shakeology which is a total nutrition shake, will also provide all the nutrients you need from the protein to the amino acids. Including this shake in your daily nutrition will help you reach your protein needs without overloading the body with hard to digest animal proteins.

It is also recommended that 10 to 30 percent of your total calories comes from protein. This guideline is general and is dependent on goals. Example: 1,800 calories per day, 180 to 540 of those calories should be from protein. Each gram of protein is 4 calories. This would put your consumption at 45 to 135 grams of protein. This proves why it is dependent on gender, activity level, and personal goals.

Most People Get Too Much Protein
To avoid weight gain, water retention and extra wear and tear on your digestive system, do not take in more protein than recommended. Your body will only use the protein it needs and can process at one time. If you are consuming more than your body needs you will either store it as excess fat or eliminate it. Therefore consuming too much at one time is bad for your body and a waste of money.

Eating large amounts of meat and animal protein each day can be especially unhealthy and hard on the body. Animal products should be eaten in moderation. Plant-based proteins, such as beans, whole grains and legumes are choices that keep the protein levels where you want them and provide a lot of other nutrients. Of course eating a variety of protein sources ensures your body balanced nutrition with all the essential amino acids and prevents it from being bogged down when there is too much of one food item.

Best Result with Your Protein Consumption
Most people don’t realize this, but the muscle gains and recovery do not come from just protein. You need to have a balanced proportion of proteins with complex carbohydrates for your body to actually assimilate the protein for muscle gains and recovery. Therefore you need to consume protein in small amounts, keeping the total grams in one sitting to no more than 20, and include carbohydrates that will optimize protein utilization. This is why we mention plant-based protein sources, as they provide both protein and carbohydrates.

If you are looking at supplements for help getting good protein and carbohydrates you want to use something that is natural and does not have additives or artificial sugars and ingredients. Two of the best sources of high quality supplements are the superfood shake Shakeology, and Beachbody’s Recharge and Recover Protein from their Performance Nutrition Line. These products are clean, high quality protein sources that are perfectly balanced with carbohydrates for optimal assimilation of the protein and super nutrient dense carbohydrates to aid in the process of muscle gain and recovery. When you are providing your body the proper macronutrient quantities, you will get the greatest results. Too much or too little will keep you from having the gains and results you are looking to obtain.

With the knowledge of protein requirements and overall balanced nutrition, great things will happen for you.

Caffeine use can be a bit controversial. I love my morning coffee and I do like using it in small amounts with training for performance gains. Here's a little breakdown of the current pros and cons. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

http://www.gettingfittogether.com/health-effects-of-caffeine/#!288

Health Effects of Caffeine

By Contributor on July 23, 2015

Caffeine has its perks, but it can pose problems as well. The best thing you can do is to find out how much is too much for you, as well as the overall health effects of caffeine. Once you know the health effects of caffeine you can properly determine whether you need to curb your consumption.

Do you rely on caffeine to wake you up and keep you going? Well you aren’t alone. Caffeine is used by millions of people every day to increase wakefulness, alleviate fatigue, and improve concentration and focus. This can be a problem.

Health Effects of Caffeine

Caffeine is a powerful stimulant, and it can be used to improve physical strength and endurance if used properly, but it can also have some very bad side effects on your health if over used and over consumed.

Where can caffeine be found and is there a difference?

 Caffeine is found in Coffee, Green Teas, Energy Drinks, soda, and in a pill form. Caffeine that you find in soda, pill form, or in the majority of energy drinks are synthetic versions of caffeine which is not a form of caffeine you want to be consuming. Then add the sugar levels that are in soda and most energy drinks, and you are on the road to weight gain and an unhealthy body. If you are going to consume caffeine it should only come from coffee, green tea, or if you are using an energy drink you need to verify that it is coming from green tea or other natural herbs that have been found safe for consumption. The cleanest most natural energy drink on the market is Energize by Beachbody. This product can found in their top selling Performance Nutrition Line.

How much is too much and what are the health effects of caffeine?

Some science says that up to 400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day appears to be safe for most healthy adults. The key word here is “Appears”. The newest science has shown that low doses of caffeine may have beneficial effects on the body, where high doses can hinder how the body operates.

Caffeine dosages really should be tailored to each individual. If you are new to caffeine or supplements that contain caffeine, keeping consumption at 100 mg or lower per dose would be a good idea. Typically, 200 mg or less of caffeine has shown to have fat-burning and performance improvement properties. Heavy caffeine use can cause unpleasant side effects, and caffeine may not be a good choice for people who are highly sensitive to its effects or who take certain medications.

Heavy daily caffeine use that is more than 400 mg a day may cause side effects such as: Insomnia, Nervousness, Restlessness, Irritability, Digestion issues and Bloating, Fast Heart Rate, Muscle Tremors, and Weight gain just to name a few.

High doses have been found to not improve performance or aid in fat burning because it causes sedation and relaxation effects by triggering those receptors in the brain. It also creates an inhibition of serotonin levels, acetylcholine, and your adrenaline system. When this happens to these systems you will see slowing in performance, and fat burning abilities.

Of course you only want the health effects of caffeine that are good. So you may need to take a look at your consumption and see how you can curb your caffeine habit to bring your consumption to the levels that will have a positive benefit.

Depending on your consumption, cutting back on caffeine can be challenging. An abrupt decrease in caffeine may cause withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, fatigue, irritability and nervousness. Fortunately, these symptoms are usually mild and resolve after a few days.

To have health effects of caffeine that will benefit you, try these tips to get your consumption in line:

• Keep tabs. Start paying attention to how much caffeine you’re getting from foods and beverages. It may be more than you think. Read labels carefully. Even then, your estimate may be a little low because not all foods or drinks list caffeine.
• Cut back. Remember to do it gradually. Decrease the amount by a few ounces each day. Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages late in the day. This will help your body get used to the lower levels of caffeine and lessen potential withdrawal effects.
• Go decaf. Most decaffeinated beverages look and taste the same as their caffeinated counterparts.
• Shorten the brew time or go herbal. When making tea, brew it for less time. This cuts down on its caffeine content. Choose herbal teas that don’t have caffeine.
• Check the bottle. Some over-the-counter pain relievers contain caffeine, and can be as much as 130 mg of caffeine in one dose. Look for caffeine-free pain relievers instead.

The bottom line is that caffeine can be a part of your daily routine if consumed at doses that benefit your health versus hinder it. When done this way, most of the time it doesn’t pose a health problem. Be mindful of those situations in which you need to curtail your caffeine habit. If you plan on using nutritional supplements that have caffeine make sure that is a high quality product that uses naturally low doses of caffeine, such as the Energize from the Beachbody Performance Line. Also keep in mind that when consuming these products you may have to keep your other caffeine beverages to lower levels.

When taking these things into consideration it will provide you the positive health effects of caffeine versus negative effects.

I've used exercise for stress relief as long as I can remember.  It's a great energy booster and helps me take my mind off other distractions.  I found a great article that better explains why this works so well.  Tell me what do you do for anxiety or stress relief.

http://www.gettingfittogether.com/exercise-for-depression-and-anxiety/#!288

Exercise for Depression and Anxiety

By Contributor on July 20, 2015

Depression and anxiety symptoms often improve with exercise. When you have anxiety or depression, exercise often seems like the last thing you want to do, but once you get motivated, exercise can make a big difference. So, how do you Exercise for Depression and Anxiety?

First you need to have a greater understanding on how exercise can make a difference in depression and anxiety symptoms. The links between anxiety, depression and exercise are not entirely clear, but working out and other forms of physical activity have shown that it can definitely ease symptoms of anxiety or depression and make you feel better. Exercise has also been shown to help keep anxiety and depression from coming back once you are feeling better and symptoms have subsided.

How does exercise help depression and anxiety?

Regular exercise for depression and anxiety may help ease symptoms in a number of ways, which may include:

• Releasing feel-good brain chemicals that may ease depression (neurotransmitters, endorphins and endocannabinoids)
• Reducing immune system chemicals that can worsen depression
• Increasing body temperature, which may have calming effects

Regular exercise has many other psychological and emotional benefits, as well. It can help you:

• Gain confidence. Meeting exercise goals or challenges, even small ones, can boost your self-confidence. Getting in shape can also make you feel better about your appearance.
• Take your mind off worries. Exercise is a distraction that can get you away from the cycle of negative thoughts that feed anxiety and depression.
• Cope in a healthy way. Doing something positive to manage anxiety or depression is a healthy coping strategy. Trying to feel better by drinking alcohol, dwelling on how badly you feel, or hoping anxiety or depression will go away on its own can lead to worsening symptoms.

Now that you have an understanding of how it can help, what can you do to Exercise for Depression and Anxiety? Research has shown that physical activity such as regular walking, gardening or other forms of physical activity may help improve mood. Keep in mind that Physical activity and exercise are not the same thing, but both are beneficial to your health. The same research has shown that those who used exercise that incorporated progressive resistance training, and cardiovascular training showed a greater improvement and maintenance of depression and anxiety.

Exercise for Depression and Anxiety

With that said, many people don’t seek out exercise because they don’t want to go to a gym or fitness facility due to their depression and anxiety. So what is the answer?

The answer is to utilize at-home fitness and exercise programs such as Beachbody’s 21 Day Fix, P90X, TurboFire, Insanity, and others that provide resistance and cardiovascular training in a planned and structured format. This progressive exercise combined with a structured plan, and where you don’t have to leave your home is great way to create that improvement or maintain that Exercise for Depression and Anxiety can bring to a person.

One of the other things that many people don’t have with going to the gym to exercise for depression and anxiety is support. With a Beachbody Club Membership, each person gets a FREE Coach to support him or her. This can be a great benefit to those who have to exercise for depression and anxiety. If you start with a Beachbody Premium Membership, you’re first 30 days is FREE, and it gives you access to Beachbody On-Demand, an amazing meal planner, and much more! After your free trial ends, you’ll continue to stream world-class programs, such as P90X®, P90X2®, P90X3®, INSANITY®, and more from our massive Beachbody Member Library.

So take advantage of exercise to provide benefits to your overall health, and to improve or manage depression and anxiety.