The Weekly Roundup: Your Go-To Guide For Everything You May Have Missed This Week & More! 1/8-1/14

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Articles, Weekly Roundup

Welcome to Ben Greenfield's Weekly Roundup and Cool New Discoveries!

Ben Greenfield's discoveries, from the latest news on the fronts of fitness, nutrition, health, wellness, biohacking, and anti-aging research. I also recap my upcoming events and special announcements so you can keep up with giveaways, discounts, and more!


New Discoveries Of The Week: Cool New Things I'm Trying, Books I'm Reading, And More!

Eat Chocolate Every Day To Improve Your Health (Really)

Yep, you heard that right. Eating chocolate on a regular basis—even every day—can significantly improve your health.

If you're still stuck in the mindset that “chocolate is bad,” check out these recent articles where I talk about all my favorite healthy chocolates and their benefits:

However, as I point out in those articles, you're not going to get the health benefits from a Snickers bar from the grocery store checkout lane. What you want, like with most food, is to get as close to the natural form as you can. Chocolate is derived from the cacao tree, and sacred (and delicious) beverages have been made from cacao since ancient times. My current favorite source for cacao is Cacao Lab because they honor the history of cacao by handling it, from harvest to cup, with the intention of it being used in ritual and in ceremony.

So, what is a cacao ceremony? A cacao ceremony is a community gathering during which you meditate and express gratitude while consuming cacao. The feel-good molecules in cacao open up your heart, helping you connect with yourself and others. My family recently did a cacao ceremony at home with Francesca at Cacao Lab, and you can check out the video of it here.

Cacao Lab's products are made from heirloom strains of cacao from Central and South America, have not been defatted, and are minimally processed under low temperatures to maximize the health benefits. On top of that, the cacao trees are grown and harvested sustainably with regenerative agricultural practices.

There's a wide variety of ceremonial cacao products available from Cacao Lab. I'm really into their “Element Blends,” which incorporate the elements of water, earth, fire, and air. Cacao Lab blends include different healthy and interesting ingredients such as coriander, hibiscus, maca, moringa, and more.

So, go ahead and eat your chocolate every day. Oh, and enjoy a nice 10% off your order when you click here and use code BENG10.

Officially Unveiling The Greenfield Family Crest

In a recent podcast with Rich Christiansen of Legado Family Founder, Rich and I discussed the importance of building a legacy and bonding your family with rituals and traditions. Our family’s work with Rich and Legado Family Founder has been a transformative process that I hope and trust will impact the Greenfield family for good, for generations.

A central element of this powerful legacy-building process was the creation of our official Greenfield family crest, derived from our family symbols, values, games, and rituals. 

I’ll quickly walk you through what each element of the crest represents…

The actual shape of the crest is a shield, which represents the shield of faith, one of the key elements of the spiritual armor of God described in Ephesians 6:10-18. My family strongly believes in our strong faith and obedience to God as being our defense against any trials and tribulations the world might throw at us. 

Next, weaving its way through the crest is a cross, which is another representation of our faith, but also our Christianity, our love for Jesus, and our honoring of Jesus’s sacrifice. The cross has five roots that extend down into water, and the five roots represent our family’s core values of joy, love, peace, sacrifice, and obedience. The flowing, living, vibrant water underneath the roots not only represents our baptism and renewal of life through our belief in the deity, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also represents our Greenfield family value of radical honesty and transparency in all our dealings and communication. 

The center component of the crest is our Greenfield family logo. The triangle with the circular base that each of the symbols is placed within represents a firm mountain of leadership and strength, with a soft, circular base of understanding, empathy, openness, and interdependence. Within each of those triangles are our family symbols. The seed represents Jessa as the life-bearer of the family, the waves of the water element my son River, the leaf of the earth element my son Terran and the fir tree pointing upwards me as the leader of my family. Surrounding our family logo is a lasso, which represents Jessa’s Montana rancher background, and symbolizes a lasso of love that ties us all together. The lasso rope eventually transitions into a link of chains to symbolize our interdependence upon one another, and our family values of cooperation, humility, and sacrifice. The logo ends with an anchor plunging into the water and representing how our family is rooted in God’s love and the waters of life that spring forth from that love. 

Each “quadrant” of the crest represents different values and activities that our family holds dear. The lower right quadrant represents joy, including food, drink, humor, laughter, savoring God’s creation,  and culture-building, including activities we enjoy as a family such as bocce ball, frisbee golf, tennis, cornhole, and a deck of cards complete with a visible joker card that represents our love for laughter and lightheartedness. 

The upper right quadrant represents each of our respective spirit animals and our love for adventure and nature. Jessa is a dolphin, River is a white wolf, Terran is an arctic fox and I am a grey wolf. The spirit animals are depicted as a pack racing through the night sky as a display of our values of interdependence, perseverance, and community, led by a shooting star that leads us forth into the glory of heaven and eternal life.

The lower left quadrant represents our love for art, music, singing, reading, writing, and creativity in general, including a beautiful treble clef, an art palette and paintbrush, a book, and a variety of musical instruments.  

The upper left quadrant represents our love for the culinary arts, for food, and perhaps more importantly, for hospitality, giving, sacrifice, and service, including imagery of our giant oak dining room table where our friends and family frequently gather to break bread and drink wine, two elements which of course also symbolize the holy sacrament and our Christian faith.  entertaining people at our table and the importance of the eucharist. 

Surrounding the outside of the crest are beautiful stones, with a center cornerstone at the top representing Christ. If you look carefully, you may be able to spot each of our individual logos (the tree, the seed, the waves, and the leaf) hidden within certain stones, and as we add new additions to the family, such as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they too will have their images engraved within the stones surrounding the crest. 

At the top of the crest is a mountain that culminates with the gates of heaven and the sun. Our family loves climbing, hiking and adventure, so you can see four family members depicted as hiking up the mountain towards heaven, and since a key value for our family is to be content no matter our circumstances, we continue to hike peacefully and contentedly, with perseverance, despite the thunderstorms and lightning you can see towards the top of the crest. The gates of Heaven at the top of the mountain show that our family desires to be a bright and shining light leading the way to the gates of heaven for all people, spreading the good news of hope as evangelists and image-bearers of God.

Our family logo is already printed on family hats, t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, and mugs; our family mission statement is hung on the wall of the living room and hallways in the home; and this crest will now be featured prominently and given a hallowed place above the fireplace in our home to continually remind us of our traditions, our values, and our legacy. If you're not already weaving traditions, rituals, routines, and an emphasis on legacy into your own family, I highly encourage you to do so, with or without the help of a professional. You can learn more about the Legado legacy building process here, and you can go here to see the work of Jacob Dean, who so expertly designed this crest for our family. So, what do you think? I’d love to hear your feedback!

My New Book Endure: Tools, Tactics & Habits For Spiritual Stamina

I recently turned 40, and as a birthday gift from myself to you (because there's no better gift than the gift of giving), I've let you in on my newest book that's coming out in April of next year. It's called Endure: Tools, Tactics & Habits For Spiritual Stamina.

This book is for you if you struggle with temptation and often find yourself succumbing to it; if you get overwhelmed by all the ways you can pray and meditate; if you lay awake at night with your mind racing thinking about the general anxieties of the week; if you want to live an impactful life that inspires others to greatness; and more.

By the conclusion of Endure, you will have discovered and learned how to implement tools, tactics, and habits for spiritual stamina that were inspired by great philosophers, thinkers, and theologians of ancient and modern ages, including Augustine, Plato, the Apostles Paul, Peter and John, the kings David and Solomon, C.S. Lewis, Naval Ravikant, Anthony de Mello, Derek Sivers, Doug Wilson, Randy Alcorn, John Piper, many, many others, and of course, Jesus Christ himself.

Just click here to be the first in line to be notified as soon as Endure: Tools, Tactics & Habits For Spiritual Stamina is ready for release, which is officially happening in April 2022. Thanks for reading, and for putting up with this old 40-year-old curmudgeon's ramblings. :)


Podcasts I Recorded This Week:

How To Get Rid Of Knee Pain Forever, The Best Knee Rehab Exercises, The Ancient Chinese Technique To Keep Your Knees Young & More With Ben Patrick, The “Knees Over Toes Guy”.

This episode was brought to you by Butcher Box, Kion Omega (code BEN10), Optimize (go to optimize.me/ben to get your free membership), Organifi (code BEN) and JOOVV (code BEN).

 

 

Did Ben Greenfield Get Vaccinated (Yet?), Can You Get COVID Twice, The Latest On Omicron, Treating Long Haul COVID & Much More With Dr. Matt Cook.

This episode was brought to you by Vuori (code BEN2020), Thrive Market (get a gift card worth up to $20 when you begin a new membership), Lucy Nicotine Gum (code BEN 20),  Optimize (go to optimize.me/ben to get your free membership), and Kion.

 

Ben Greenfield's VIP Text Club: To receive exclusive texts from Ben Greenfield, text the word “FITNESS” to 411247 (within the U.S. only).


Articles I Published This Week:

Everything You Need To Know About Peptides Part 1: What Are Peptides, Where to Get Peptides, How To Reconstitute Peptides, Peptide Storage, Peptide Injections & More!

My full article feed and all past archives of my articles are here if you want to check out past articles.


Podcasts I Was On This Week:

The Resetter Podcast: Biohacking Mental Health

Danica Patrick Pretty Intense Podcast


Product Of The Week

::: Save $5 On This Healthy, Delicious Cereal :::

Prepare to relive fond childhood memories of watching morning cartoons while eating a big bowl of fruity, frosted, or chocolatey cereal—but with far healthier (and I'll argue tastier) versions of what you ate back then.

Meet the healthy cereal that makes your new resolution worth sticking to. Magic Spoon is the best way to start the new year healthy and on the right foot.

Their cereals have 14g of protein, 0g of sugar, and most importantly, taste incredible. Their flavors include some of your childhood faves, like Frosted, Fruity, Cocoa, and Peanut Butter—and the crunch is one of my favorite ways to start the day. You can build your own custom box of flavors with any combo of those or the delicious Cookies & Cream, Maple Waffle, Blueberry, and Cinnamon!

My twin boys absolutely love this stuff, and I'll admit I find myself digging into it, too, every now and then—okay, maybe a bit more than that. ;)

And especially now that we're entering a new year, getting your hands on a healthy breakfast option couldn't be more important.

Magic Spoon provides such a great way to still enjoy delicious cereal but without the added junk. So click here and use code BENGREENFIELD to save $5 off the variety pack. 


Upcoming Events:

Six Senses Portugal (March 7 – 11, 2022)

Experience mind, body, and soul transformation in five enriching days led by me. Improve functional exercise, nutrition, longevity, and the delicate balance between performance and health. If you're ready to feel like the best version of yourself once and for all, click here to reserve your spot for this enlightening and “boundless” retreat.

Keep up on all of my LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldfitness.com/calendar!


I Want To Know What You've Got Cooking

I'm so stoked about the positive feedback I've been getting about my new Boundless Cookbook. The cookbook was a labor of love, but I'm really proud of the end result (especially considering I'm definitely not a trained chef).

Now that the Boundless Cookbook is available on Amazon, I have a favor to ask…

If you have the cookbook and you love it, can you hop on over to Amazon and leave a review? Amazon reviews—as I bet you know—are super important. I want your honest feedback and I'll be reading them to hear what you think.

You can leave your review on Amazon right here (and if you don't have a cookbook yet, and you're an Amazon Prime member, you could have your copy at your doorstep as early as tomorrow).


Kion Product Of The Week: Get Essential Omega-3 Fatty Acids Into Your Diet With Kion Omega

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential to your well-being. They support heart health, brain function, athletic recovery, and more. The only question is…are you getting enough?

If you’re not eating at least two servings of fatty fish a week, you're likely deficient in these crucial fats.

But no need to stock up on the canned tuna. Simply supplementing with a high-quality fish oil can provide you with health-promoting omega-3s at a fraction of the cost.

Kion Omega is a concentrated, pure fish oil supplement that provides over 200% of your daily omega-3 recommendations in one serving. It's made from sustainably sourced cold-water anchovies and is naturally preserved with antioxidants. Kion Omega's triglyceride form provides up to 70% more absorption than other forms of fish oil.

Get your hands on pure, premium Kion Omega by clicking here.

*The FDA hasn't evaluated these statements. Kion products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.


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Leave your comments and any news or discoveries that you think I missed below!

Cheers,

Ben

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