Breaking Through the Blue Line: Monica Crawford's Journey of Resilience in Law Enforcement

When Monica Crawford dons her badge, she's not just upholding the law, but also breaking through barriers. I, Harriet West-Moore, had the privilege of delving into Monica's profound insights on the challenges that women in public safety face. In a candid recount of her personal narrative, illuminated in her book "Thriving Inside the Thin Blue Line," Monica doesn't shy away from detailing the emotional toll of working within an often-toxic environment. Our conversation is a raw revelation of the adversities women in uniform withstand, serving as a powerful call to arms for cultural shifts in the field of law enforcement.

Navigating the high-pressure world of first responders, Monica's story underscores the pursuit of respect and the continuous struggle to hold ground in a male-dominated profession. She imparts invaluable wisdom on the critical role of nutrition and fitness, offering practical strategies for meal prep that bolster both physical and mental fortitude. Listen as we dissect the societal pressures that compel women to compromise their standards and explore the avenues for establishing a supportive culture that values their contributions without reservations.

We round out our session with a focus on the significance of personal wellness as a catalyst for positive change. I share my perspective on how nurturing mental and physical health can ripple outward, fostering a transformative impact on public safety professions. Reflecting on habits such as sleep, exercise, and a positive mindset, we emphasize the collective strength needed to overcome gender-based challenges. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Monica for her bravery, and to you, our listeners, for engaging with us in this empowering exchange.

https://www.five0fierceandfit.com/thrivinginsidethethinblueline
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monica.eaton.75 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@five0.fierce.and.fit 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/five0.fierce.and.fit/ 

Email: publicsafetybywomen@gmail.com
Website: https://womeninpublicsafety.com
Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/@womeninpublicsafety

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Putting every note you make and tremble like every K solls, like every Sami in the world. If you'd like to Dorip Trying to make knobs, just go, go, go. No hardest music.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Hey everybody, this is Harriet Westmore with the Women in Public Safety podcast. This is the podcast where we discuss women who are our frontline heroes. Whether you're in law enforcement, whether you're in corrections, whether you're in the healthcare facility, whether you're in human services, net convene, social work or just, you know, serving your community in a public sector, we're here for you. This is what this is about. I want to welcome you.

Speaker 2: 1:16

This is a special segment and I wanted to get this young lady on. She was gracious enough for me to ask her at the last moment because I saw that she has something very up and coming that I think we all would definitely enjoy. She has written a book and she is a physical fitness for those of us who are on the line, who works inside the prison, and how to be our best selves, nutritionally and also physically. So, with that being said, I'm going to give you her information of how you can contact her once we're near the end of the podcast, but I just want to welcome everybody to Monica Crawford. Monica, thank you so much for accepting my invitation to come on to the podcast.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Yeah, absolutely. I had fun last time. If we should do it again, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 2:14

Absolutely so. Tell us what have you been doing and tell me you're writing a book and it's called Thriving the Inside Blue Line. Give us a background of how you birthed that and where did it come from.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Yeah, so it's thriving inside the thin blue line, more specifically, identifying abuse, taking back control and cultivating fulfillment in your life and career. So this book is a story of my experience within a law enforcement capacity, being full time within a department that I was employed with previously. Basically, I had a rough go there and it wasn't a great environment and I hit rock bottom mentally three times in three and a half years. So that's a lot of up and down in a short time span. So my book outlines those three different times where I hit rock bottom, what was going on. It also identifies somewhat of toxic work environment and what emotional abuse looks like and puts a name to a lot of those things where I think, within law enforcement especially, we accept it as part of the job when it's actually emotional abuse. So I might get some slack for that, but that's okay because I want it to change.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So I've had this discussion with other people also.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Everybody knows this goes on within the walls of police departments and everybody gripes about it and makes fun of it, but no one actually wants to talk about it and make a change.

Speaker 1: 3:57

So I talk about those three different instances, my experience and what happened there, how I pulled myself back out. And then the end of the book is those techniques that help me pull back, pull myself back out and kind of pick myself back up and stay healthy mentally and physically. So it includes chapters on nutrition tips, fitness, mindset, things to just help you tip the balance back in your life. So you are thriving in your career, you're finding fulfillment, you're enjoying your job, you're not dreading it or counting down the days you have till retirement and also you're enjoying life outside of career while you're able to be present, you have the boundaries set that you need and hopefully you're in a positive work environment that can support you having a fulfilled life outside of work and just living, doing more living instead of dreading working all the time and only working, eating, sleeping and going back and doing it again.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Absolutely Tell you. Can you kind of share one incident that you think that we as women who work in public safety professions that we all can relate to, that happen to you? That you know I'm sure there's a plenty, but I mean one in particular that you know how we can probably say, yeah, I've been there and I'm dealing with it and I'm glad that you're talking about it.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Yeah, so I. There are things that I experienced that could have been because I was a female, but generally speaking, well, one of them specifically was when it was a sergeant hitting on me and inappropriate behavior from somebody. So obviously that that's something that's relatable to women. And there's other things, like I talk about how I got into basically a disciplinary process that I was in three. I had three disciplinary issues within this fan of like six or eight weeks and that was on my way out, because I kind of saw the writing on the wall there that I really wasn't wanted and I had a pretty big target on my back.

Speaker 1: 6:02

So I say that with a grain of salt, just because I know women do have more challenges and more hurdles in first responder fields. We know that going in right, we know that it's a male driven field. We know that we're going to have to work a little bit harder to be fit, to earn respect, to basically prove ourselves that we can be there. But I guess my biggest message that I would say to two female first responders is you got to earn your keep, yes, but that's the same as every other guy there too, right, they got to earn their keep. It becomes problematic when you feel like you have to constantly keep earning and earning, and earning and you're never getting that respect. You shouldn't have to prove yourself over and over every day that you show up there, because then it's constantly this feeling well, I'm the problem, I'm not good enough, I can't get there, and I think that's the biggest red flag of like, no matter what you do, nothing is good enough in the eyes of your peers, which is a lot of what I dealt with and my confidence took a huge hit. I'm grateful for, like, the two or three people that I could trust who were reassuring and were, like you're doing okay, just keep doing what you're doing, because that was a huge hit to me of like, just everything that I was doing seemed to be wrong in the eyes of my coworkers, no matter how confident or how well I felt I handled a specific call or situation.

Speaker 1: 7:24

So I'd say that's my main message to women in general of like you know, you know you have to earn. Earn the respect you know. You know women are naturally the weaker sex. It's just facts. You got to be fitter and stronger to hang with the guys, which I think we enjoy that challenge, but don't feel like you're never good enough. Like don't, don't stay in a place where you're constantly just being told you're not good enough. Like do some inner work, like make sure you're showing up on your end of the deal, but at the end of the day, you should go where you're valued and respected. There should be a department where you are valued and respected because you should bring something unique to the table at your employer, which which should be an asset.

Speaker 2: 8:08

Absolutely, and just hearing you think it, I can just go back in my memory and, you know, think about instances where you know, you just feel they do, they make you feel like you know crap and knowing that you're doing the best that you can and you're doing everything that is required of you, but it's still not good enough and you have to think about, well, what is it? Is it me personally, or you know? Or it could be because I don't, I'm not part of the, the network as far as I'm. You know, sometimes a lot of us, as females, choose to do things that they normally would not want to do in order to be accepted, in order to get that promotion and and things, and that's a whole nother you know area another podcast episode that could be talked about.

Speaker 2: 9:00

And I'm just glad you are, you know, kind of letting us know that you know you were, we're women, but, yes, we can do the job. This is well as you can. We are, we deserve our respect and, you know, respect us as we are. We don't have, we shouldn't have, to bend over or lay down or anything to you know, to for you as a superior, to you know, give us extra, you know favors or anything like that. I mean, that's one of the things that I find you know very and that could be in any you know profession, but I'm just particularly because of what we do I mean it's very can be very Definitely blatant of what's going on right. So so talk about your nutrition and how to keep us mentally as well as physically fit to do our jobs.

Speaker 1: 9:56

So I like to break it down into a few tips when I'm when I'm walking somebody through the process. The first is focusing on whole foods.

Speaker 1: 10:04

You want to try to put foods that are naturally occurring in nature. They're non-processed. Anything that you know grows on a tree or a plant or an animal. Anything meets fruits, veggies, nut seeds, healthy fats, those things. So the first thing is eat whole foods. Second one is cooking at home 80% of the time, eating out 20% of the time, trying to keep that balance as far as is cooking your foods at home, eating out. And then the third main thing is prioritizing your protein, so making sure each meal has at least 30 to 40 grams of protein on the plate, which is usually about a fist, a fist size portion of protein or deck of cards on your plates. Those are the three main things that like, very foundationally speaking of. Where I would start is Try to get out of the drive-through, get out of the fast food and make sure you're getting enough protein.

Speaker 2: 11:03

And I know which I'm also going to want you to talk about is your Facebook group, but a lot of things that you talk about. As far as prep meal property, which is very essential you know you want to kind of prep your meals and you already know what you're gonna, you know, have before you go into work and and so talk about how do you meal prep before you're going to shift.

Speaker 1: 11:27

So I like to use the visual of a balanced plate, which essentially that takes that next step a little bit forward from step three to step four, which would be building a balanced plate. So what that looks like is getting about a fist-sized portion of protein on the plate, which should be about a quarter of your plate. Half of your plate should be vegetables and then the other quarter should be a starchy carb like rice, potatoes or pasta. So what I encourage people to do is to cook those three things separately. So like book cook book book, cook Some chicken in a crock pot or something like that. So you have that set aside. Then maybe boil some rice, pasta, potatoes those are easy to cook in bulk and then pick a veggie canned, fresh, frozen, doesn't really matter.

Speaker 1: 12:13

You can mix and match those on your plate throughout the week. So a good example of that is like a burrito bowl. You have the rice as your base or your starch. You can add your shredded chicken to it for your protein. Your veggies can be whatever, whether it's like bell pepper, onion, corn, beans, like all of those good things and then you can top it with some salsa or avocado and you have a delicious bowl that you can take with you to work. You throw it all in the Tupperware container. You heat it all up at once. It's all just there and ready to go for you.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Very good and some of the dishes I'm telling you guys, some of the dishes that she actually does when she does her live demonstration, I mean my mouth waters. She's just looking at us. I'll have to try that. And it's very easy. It doesn't take hours to cook, it's very quick and very easy and she also takes us on a journey when she goes do her shopping for her fruits and she picks and she'll let you know what is good and what kind of substitute you can have and still get all your nutrients and your proteins, everything that you're needed to feel balanced and full but not sluggish, and that's the main thing.

Speaker 2: 13:24

You don't want to go into work feeling eaten a bunch of greasy foods or anything like that, and I hate to. I don't know what you guys use, but the word frozen just it makes me cringe, because when you froze, for me when I was the CEO that I have to stay over on shift because somebody calls off and you have to work another whole new, other shift I was working second shift and someone calls off and they don't have no staff on third shift. So guess what? You're froze, so you have to so and then with you meal prepping, you can take that extra. What would you suggest? It's like extra fruit, extra nuts or anything that will hold you over to your next shift.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:17

So my main thing is always having snacks with you, stuff that's non-perishable, that you can keep with you in those cases where you can't get to a meal or if you get held over.

Speaker 1: 14:27

In a situation where you're pretty often getting held over, I would say try to have another meal with you that you can maybe leave in the fridge just so it's there for you.

Speaker 1: 14:35

But snacks in general are great and especially with corrections officers, I always tell them to like shove stuff in your pants pockets because, depending on what pod or where you're at within the jail, you may not be able to get back to the break room. So stuff in like granola bars, nuts, like string cheese, maybe a beef stick, like something that you can easily access and munch on if you need to. But for patrol sake, like for law enforcement, fire, ems, if you have a big lunchbox, you can just keep it with you all day and throw those snacks down in there, especially. I mean I know with cops in their cars a lot of times you probably swap it out week to week, but there's some things you can leave in your patrol car for like months and then it'll be something like nuts and granola bars and stuff like that, crackers even just to keep that stuff on hand, cause that way you're never starving, you're never angry and you at least have something with you.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Absolutely, absolutely Good advice. Now talk about the physical part. What type of physical activity do you do and what can we do to kind of keep ourselves physically fit?

Speaker 1: 15:45

So I like to focus in on functional fitness, which stems from my background in CrossFit. So I've been a CrossFit trainer since 2014. So 10, going on 11 years now. The way I program for my coaching clients that I work with one-on-one is strength-based and it's cardio-based, but it's also with functional movements. So it's things that will translate into your work. For instance, like doing a deadlift you're picking weight up off the ground. That could translate to moving a body, like picking up a body, dragging them or picking up any heavy equipment, things like that. I like to make it functional.

Speaker 1: 16:26

Or like for for law enforcement, like I work in, like sprinting in case you get into like a foot pursuit or something like that, where it's also different time domains where you might have like a quick sprint of a workout. Maybe you have something that's like more moderate, with moderate intensity. If you get into a ground fight, like you got to move and work for, at least for like five to ten minutes. So if you can practice that and you can move and work for five to ten minutes, you can stay alive for five to ten minutes if you're finding somebody right. So I stick with the crossfit methodology and that's kind of how I program. But I also make sure that there's a good strength piece in there. So you're you're working to build strength and get stronger in your major lifts like your squat, your press, your deadlift, things like that. And that's typically speaking.

Speaker 1: 17:08

For some people who can't get into the gym, I can I program some body weight and like dumbbell stuff at home if you would prefer that, because some women don't like going to a gym or just it doesn't make sense for them to go. So there's there's ways to work around it too. You don't necessarily have to have the gym. So that's my. My main thing is just get moving. However, you can try to try to start walking 30 minutes three times a week. From there you can start adding in some body weight movements. Just vary it up, make it a different workout every time. Mix up your air squats, push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, things like that. Run that for 30 minutes three times a week and then you can start adding in some dumbbells and some weight to kind of give you some more variety and vary that up a little bit too wow, okay, and I you know again if you go to her facebook page, which we're going to talk about now.

Speaker 2: 18:00

So tell me about your facebook page and what all that entails so I have a private group on facebook.

Speaker 1: 18:06

It's called 50 fierce and fit group group. I think we're almost up to 1200 female first responders in there. Yeah, yeah, and that's in just over two years of being there. So it's an awesome community. We've got 1200 1200 female first responders in there. There are some guys in there, too, because they they need the help, so they'll pop in there every once in a while, but every day I usually make a post sharing some something that has to do with nutrition, fitness, mindset, lifestyle or career, just to give you the tips to help get you started towards improving yourself.

Speaker 1: 18:41

Whether it's losing fat, gaining strength, adding muscle, improving cardio. It really just depends on on what your specific goals are. If you come to me and tell me you need something specific, I can give you a specific resource for it. So I try to give out generic advice within the group that will hit the majority of people, but you can always shoot me a message if there's something specific you're struggling with that you need just like a little bit of help with. I can do that too well, you hear it.

Speaker 2: 19:10

I mean that was my next question is is it going to be virtual or you have to be in person? But I may think she answered the question. 1200 people, active people that are in her group, that tells you exactly how. You know how beneficial it is for everybody and so I will have that in the show notes for people who are interested in wanting to become part of the five way. You know, because I'm part of it and I and I know and I know and I know I have to really start getting myself up and start doing a physical activity. But just, you know looking at the post and you know listen to your, you know reading your inspiration. It does, it does help and I really appreciate that. Just a little advice, tidbits of you know how to cook this and what to do with that. I mean it really does help. So I do appreciate that. Now people want to, um, when it's tell me about your book and when is it up and coming?

Speaker 1: 20:10

so I have like a chapter or two left to write on it. Um, so we are hoping to publish, probably May or June, oh okay, so hopefully within the next couple months it'll be, it'll be out and ready to go okay and I hope I have the actual.

Speaker 2: 20:30

Is this where people can go on and get on the waiting list? Correct?

Speaker 1: 20:37

Yes, if you click that link. It's the 504sandfitcom backslash thriving inside the thin blue line. That is where you can register to get early access to any notifications and then eventually, once it's live, I can include those links for where you can get the book.

Speaker 2: 20:58

Awesome. I'm so excited for you because you guys are. So you know I'm already on the list, so you want to get on that list. Get on the list and she automatically you'll receive the email and she will keep you posted of when the book is ready for purchase. In closing, any last words of advice or piece of nugget that you would like to share to us women as we are? You know, every day it's a mindset of going to our jobs. A lot of times I know you don't feel like you're appreciated, but I personally, every time I end the podcast, I always tell people how much I appreciate what you do. We might not get the pat on the back by our superiors or even our colleagues or even the public, but just know that you are appreciated. So what would you like to say to your colleagues?

Speaker 1: 22:02

Yeah, my main takeaway is change starts with you, so it starts on the individual level and the choice is yours. You can make the choice today to start working towards the best version of you, because a healthier version of you shows up as to a better worker, a better officer, medic, corrections officer, fill in the blank. Once you show up as the best version of yourself or start working on that, you start to affect the people around you. You have a better work output and hopefully we're tipping the domino in the right direction of you're helping the next person to become a little bit more positive, a little bit healthier, and then the next person, and then the next person and then hopefully, you know, like the big goal of mine I guess overarching is not only to be able to implement officer and first responder health and wellness across departments, but also the culture change aspect of it.

Speaker 1: 22:56

If we can show up healthier, we're less likely to be crabby and hate the world. Right, absolutely. So. I mean, if you can focus on yourself enough to prioritize you and fill your own cup so much that it pours over onto other people, that's where the positive change starts and that's where the focus should be is on what you can control. You can control you. You can't control the crabby co-worker that wants to nitpick and bring everybody down every day, right? Hopefully, you can just do you and become the best version of you, and it starts with being healthy. So it starts with those lifestyle habits getting your sleep, taking care of yourself, your mental health, fueling your body for your job and activity demands, and then also moving your body well.

Speaker 2: 23:43

And there you have it. Great advice, great advice. Thank you so much, monica, for coming back on. I really am excited for you and I know you have good things ahead. I mean, you started off just in two years. You started the Facebook group and now look at you, prisso, you're going to be national and I'm going to say well, you know what.

Speaker 2: 24:03

I remember. I knew her, so I know her. Just keep me in mind. I know you're like your autograph, but thank you so much and you guys please hit that like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. I try to bring guests on, such as Monica, because she's been there, she's where we are and she's doing great things and, like she says, it's about changing the mindset. We go through a lot. Not only sometimes we can expect the pushback from the public a lot of times, but within your own department, within your own co-workers or whatever. That's where it kind of hits us in a more different way personally, but it's how you come up, how you come into work for yourself. It's about changing that mindset and just do not allow people to bring you down in that negative spirit, because that negative spirit easily transfers to other people that you may come in feeling okay, but then hearing someone just bitching and moaning all day long about something, next thing you know you're going to take on that negativity yourself and that's not what you want to do, because it does affect you mentally as well as physically and we just we need our women are very important.

Speaker 2: 25:31

I really have to say the comments that I've gotten mostly the feedback of our youth on the YouTube comment. But there is, there's some haters and I'm calling that because I mean I don't, you know their haters this one and I. It's funny. Now I have to laugh because I use this particular Comment as an example of you know how you cannot just internalize everything, but this one particular Person and he had to be a male. He said off, female officers are useless and are dangerous.

Speaker 2: 26:06

And you know, I have a smart ass mouth, I know that and I can be sarcastic, I have a sarcastic sense of humor, and so I Plicely just, you know, come in and said so is your brain is being useless. But I mean, you know to say something like that. You know it's, it's stuff like that is why we need to, as a support, we need to, you know, just come together as Women and support each other and just know that you are not useless. What your job is, you're just as important as if our male counterparts are doing it. So you know what. That being said, just keep doing what you're doing, do the best that you can be, the best that you are, and you know God has your back, or whatever spiritual, however your spiritual being is. I mean just know that the most high have you, no matter what.

Speaker 2: 27:06

So Thank you guys for listening. Thank you, monica for joining and I will talk with you guys if anybody has any other. Have comments. Please keep it respectful in the on YouTube. But also, if you have stories or or you want to be a guest on the show, please reach out to public safety by women at gmailcom and we will talk about it and you I'll get you on for the next episode. But thank you so much and you guys take care and please be safe.

Speaker 1: 28:05

You, you.