The Care and Feeding of a Police Officer

I've been pondering about the role of nutrition in a police officer's life. This is a tough one - these men and women have erratic work schedules, their activity level can be totally sedentary one day and running full out the next. They can try to pack a lunch but then never have time to eat it, or be stuck in fast food joints in between calls and often at the receiving end of plates of cookies and candy from people in the community looking to "thank" their local police force.

I would like to write a series of articles about this subject, but I need your help. Everybody loves a survey, right? Ok, well, learn to love it if you don't 'cause I'm starting one now. I've set up two short surveys via SurveyMonkey, a service I've used successfully in the past. Why 2? Because they only allow me 10 questions per survey and I had 20 I wanted to ask. So there you go.

I've put the links to the surveys in the top, left corner of this blog. They are totally anonymous - I don't ask any personal information and the site doesn't collect any personal information for you. Just click on the link and the survey will open right up and you can take it. Please, please help me out. And let you friends know too. I'm open to any first responders taking the quiz as well as their immediate family members. In fact, if you can get your husbands or wives who are on the job to take this also, that would be fantastic!

A few years ago I did a survey that dug deeply into the lives of police wives and it resulted in some pretty amazing articles and even got me a whole chapter in a book about blogging. I'm excited about the potential of this one and can't wait to see the results.

By the way, if anyone out there works in the field of diet and nutrition, I'd love some help. Drop me an email if you wouldn't mind me running some questions by you here and there. Thanks so much!

Comments

[Dori]

I really hope I didn't mess up your survey! We're just not a "normal" household--even more not normal than most LEO families! My husband is the cook and his partner is a yellow lab--scooby snacks weren't on the list of choices. :D Interesting though--he's been much healthier since switching from mids (6 years of that shift) to daytime. Not as much gas station cuisine going on as there used to be.

[Natalie]

I posted a copy of this link (I didn't think you'd mind) onto the small-town police wife blog that I'm a contributor to:

http://walkingathinblueline.blogspot.com/2009/04/check-out-this-police-eating-survey-if.html

I hope it gives you a more broad perspective of things. I've already had a couple of great comments from other cop wives! Yay for blogs!!!!

[Mrs. Fuzz]

This seriously is my biggest struggle! I love feeding my family from scratch. We sure make our share of junk, as you can see on my food blog, but for our 3 main meals, I try to pack in what we need daily.

A lot of times, I prepare a big healthy meal and snacks for him to take and he says he doesn't want it, but I know that in the middle of the night he will get hungry and end up going to Wendy's. It drives me crazy because I am a penny pincher. It seems like he likes easy to go and grab things. i fill a nalgene bottle with gatorade or water, or I pack a protein shake packet with a container that he can shake it up in. I have been trying to come up with my own homemade trail mixes that have nuts, raisins, dried fruit, etc., turkey sandwiches, pb and honey sandwiches, assorted vegies, dips for his fruit and vegies, yogurt. I have no idea if he hates these things or not.

This is a great idea you have. It's something that is on my mind all the time! Espeically since he is sleeping all day and then up all night. His first meal is our dinner. I've made a goal this year to figure out the food and nutrition situation. We make a lot of meals from the Eating for life cookbook.