#29: The Alligator Closest to Your Boat

Hey Friends,

Happy 2025!

Fitness can be a complicated landscape to navigate. With so many conflicting pieces of information and opinions, it’s tough to know what things you should be focusing on in order to move towards your goals.

This week I’m going to talk though the expression “Kill the alligator closest to your boat” and how it can help you move in a positive direction for your health and fitness.

Weekly Action Point

🧘 Let’s start the year off with a weekly action point related to flexibility/mobility. On three days this week, I want you to do 10 minutes of stretching 🧘 

I’d recommend planning out which days you want to do the stretching in advance so that you aren’t winging it. I feel that makes it more likely you’ll actually do it. But whatever works for you, just be sure to fit them in.

If you want some inspiration, here is a 10 minute full body stretching video from Youtube:

And if you don’t like this video or don’t want to do the same video three times, find a different one. There are endless options to choose from on Youtube. Just search “10 min full body stretch” or something similar.

Finding (and killing) Your closest Alligator

So, first things frist. For those of you that have never heard the expression “Kill the alligator closest to your boat” (which I’m guessing is the majority of you), you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about.

Let me explain.

The expression is used as a way of saying: solve the biggest issue first.

Imagine you’re in a swamp in a tiny 14 foot boat surrounded by alligators. There’s an alligator 2 feet away from your boat and it’s coming towards you. It looks like that alligator wants to climb aboard and eat you (scary).

Then there’s an alligator about 50 feet away, and the rest of the alligators are further out in the distance, let’s say about the length of a football field away.

In order to defend yourself and stay alive, which alligator are you gonna shoot first?

I hope the answer is obvious.

The hungry looking alligator two feet away is a much more immediate threat than the ones off in the distance. It wouldn’t make any sense to shoot an alligator 300 feet away while you let the close one climb aboard and eat you.

You’ll kill the closest alligator to your boat first because it’s the biggest issue for you.

Now, why am I talking about alligators and what does this have to do with your health and fitness?

Like a swamp in south Florida, the fitness world has loads of ‘alligators’ that we need to fend off. There are so many challenges to overcome in the fitness world. So many, in fact, that people often times don’t know what pieces to focus on.

People find themselves wondering which exercises to do, how heavy they should be lifting, how many days per week they should go to the gym.

Should they be doing cardio and lifting weights? One or the other? What’s the best way to be eating? Do I need to be mealprepping? What are the best supplements to take to maximize recovery? Are artificial sweeteners bad for me?

What’s the best brand of protein powder? Is there a “right or wrong” way to structure my workouts? How fast should I be losing weight?

How do I optimize my sleep? Is there a such thing as too much exercise? What if I’m not doing the right things? When lifting weights, is it better to prioritize the stretch or contraction of my muscle?

The point I’m making is this: there are so many factors that go into your health and fitness. How do you pick what you should be prioritizing?

Well, you kill the alligator closest to your boat. Worry about the biggest problems first. These bigger problems will make the largest difference.

For example, if you’re sleeping less than 7 hours on average each night, that is probably the alligator closest to your boat that you should worry about.

Maybe you haven’t been to the gym in three weeks. Getting to the gym consistently might be the closest alligator.

Or maybe you eat out five times or more per week. That could be your alligator.

Do you drink alcohol heavily on a regular basis? Maybe that’s the closest alligator.

All this to say: You should focus on prioritizing the things that will have the biggest impact on your health and fitness without letting yourself get bogged down in the smaller details.

Since there are so many different things people could be doing, sometimes they’ll get stuck in analysis paralysis and do nothing because they feel overwhelmed.

What supplements you should be taking to maximize recovery is an example of an alligator way off in the distance. Does it matter? Maybe. But if you aren’t prioritizing the big things, then no, it’s probably not going to make any difference.

To drastically simplify things for you, here are the alligators I think you should worry about killing first:

• Getting 8 hours of sleep every night

• Trying to lift weights 2x per week minimum, consistently every week

• Preparing food at home the vast majority of the time instead of eating out regularly

• Prioritizing trying to eat whole natural foods

If you can kill these alligators, you’ll be in a better position than 95% of the population. You don’t need to overcomplicate things or do anything crazy to see progress.

Ask yourself this:

What is the alligator closest to my boat? If I could pick one thing, what is the thing that would have the largest impact my fitness goals?

Hopefully I didn’t lose you in my rambling about alligators this week… It’s a ridiculous expression. But hopefully it was ridiculous enough that the point I was making got across. Don’t shoot at an alligator 300 feet away while you let a closer alligator climb aboard and eat you. Shoot the alligator closest to your boat.

Wishing you an awesome start to the year, and have a great week guys. This was a fun talk :)

Ben

Ben’s Best

🍽️ Meal idea of the week: Asian noodle stir fry

Made up this recipe today and it was awesome so I wanted to share.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Rice noodles

• 1 boneless skinless chicken thigh

• 1 avocado

• 1 cup of frozen vegetables (I used the stir fry frozen vegetables from costco)

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 tbsp honey

• sriracha to taste

1. Season the chicken to your liking. I sprinkled paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. Didn’t measure, just coated the chicken.

2. I threw the chicken on the grill, but cook however you want until it reaches 165 internal temp

3. Bring a pot of water to boil and throw in the rice noodles according to the package

4. Cook your frozen vegetables in a frying pan

5. Combine your sauce ingredients. When the noodles are done, add them into the pan with the veggies and pour the sauce over them

6. Put everything in a big bowl with fresh avocado on top and inhale it

Took me like 10 minutes to pull together. Insanely easy and delicious.

🎙️ Podcast I loved this week:

Mind Pump 2498: Three Reasons Why Eating More Can Make You Leaner