John-Edward Heath from Foster Care to Professional Adaptive Athlete

[Coach D]: 00:00:01

Hey, what's going on gentlemen? Welcome to another episode of the Committed Man podcast.

[Coach D]: 00:00:06

And I'm super excited today. I got my new friend, John Edward Heath on the episode.

[Coach D]: 00:00:13

John, how you doing, man?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:00:15

Well, brother, thank you for having me. I'm excited to unpack some things

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:00:19

with you.

[Coach D]: 00:00:20

Yeah, for sure. We've had a couple of conversations. Our last one was really good.

[Coach D]: 00:00:23

You were on your drive on the way to Florida, doing all these amazing things

[Coach D]: 00:00:27

you're doing. But the most intriguing thing to me was when you, you know, we saw

[Coach D]: 00:00:33

each other at Collective and kind of in passing, hey, what's going on? And then

[Coach D]: 00:00:36

later on you came back around and you're like, hey, I heard you do this thing.

[Coach D]: 00:00:38

And we got into a little conversation there. And that was, there was something at

[Coach D]: 00:00:42

that moment that I knew we would be talking more later on. And now here we are

[Coach D]: 00:00:46

with this. So yeah, man. You know, in our last conversation, you said something

[Coach D]: 00:00:52

that really caught my interest. And that was that you from Iceland, you're Icelandic.

[Coach D]: 00:00:59

So yeah, give me tell me about that. Like you were born in Iceland and how long

[Coach D]: 00:01:03

were you there?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:04

No,

[Coach D]: 00:01:04

No.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:04

no, no. So the backstory on, so there's a lot that goes into, I've never,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:12

when people ask me where I'm from, especially in the States, listen

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:16

Donovan, I've lived, I lived in California for 10 years. I've lived

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:19

in the South, I've lived in the Midwest, I've lived in the East Coast,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:22

I grew up in the East Coast. And then I left, I lived in Europe and Iceland

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:28

became my home, man, Iceland. Iceland was my version of redefining yourself,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:36

of who I was going to be. There's a lot that happened in my lifetime.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:42

I really didn't know who John Edward Heath was going to be outside of

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:47

service, outside of coaching, outside of no longer having a limb. And then

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:52

COVID happened. So it just, there's, Iceland's my home. There's, I have

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:01:59

family there, what everybody needs to understand about me as a person, I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:04

have homes and families all over the place. That is just to let you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:09

know, like a lot of people have helped me develop, and I didn't know that

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:14

until now that I'm in this path that I'm in where it's like, even if it

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:17

was letting me stay on your couch for one day, like that helped develop

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:20

the man that I am today.

[Coach D]: 00:02:24

really powerful man. So tell me, give me some history through all this moving

[Coach D]: 00:02:28

and all the things you did. What were some of the constants as like hobbies

[Coach D]: 00:02:31

and things that had your interest as you were growing?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:34

So you know what's crazy that you asked that? I try to really emphasize

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:39

this. I didn't play sports as a kid. So the fact that I'm a professional

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:42

athlete competing at the highest level in multiple sports lets you know,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:46

like, I think that is a uniqueness and what I think people should really

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:49

focus on my story because every other person, my best friends, all in

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:54

the NFL, they've been playing football since they were four. You know, and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:02:59

then you go to peewees and you play in elementary school, you play

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:01

in a league, you play flag football, you go to middle school, you go to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:04

high school. And then the dream is division one football. Then the dream

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:07

is the NFL and the same goes for every other sport. For me, unfortunately,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:12

I didn't really, I really didn't have hobbies, man. I, I honestly, as

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:17

a kid, I, there was a lot of, a lot of stuff that I needed to figure

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:22

out as a child. I bounced around from homes. If you've read and you know,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:28

I was a product of social services. And I was, but the crazy thing about

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:32

it was that I was, I know who my biological parents are. I lived with

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:36

them. I dealt with a lot of trauma and abuse, like actual trauma and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:41

abuse by them, which finally the system was like, all right, now the 13th

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:47

time is when we're gonna remove you from the home, right? And that's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:52

what happened. So as a kid, honestly, I just really, I've always been

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:03:55

a people person. So for me as a child, I just really loved being around

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:00

whoever was in my life in that season. That's honestly what my hobby

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:04

was and whether it was going to the club or going to eat some pizza,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:09

I was a hooligan man. We stayed up plenty of late nights and sleeping

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:15

on benches and stuff.

[Coach D]: 00:04:19

It's interesting to hear you say that because, you know, and we don't have to

[Coach D]: 00:04:22

go too deep into the things that happened, but as these things were happening,

[Coach D]: 00:04:25

were there shifts in your mindset and your personality that you could feel going

[Coach D]: 00:04:30

on? Like you said, like, OK, 13th time, we're going to remove you. Like, what

[Coach D]: 00:04:34

was that doing to your mind as this stuff was happening?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:37

Honestly, I will tell you, right now at 32 years old, this is why I believe

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:42

in God and why I believe in the universe. In these moments, I never

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:47

really fell into the poor me mentality. So as these things were going,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:51

I just, the hustle mentality, and I grew up in a very like gang heavy place,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:04:57

it was just, this is what's happening, what's the next step, right? So

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:01

my entire childhood until I was 17 years old, that's what it was. It

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:04

was like, oh. biological mom's drunk, you know, she's on drugs. She's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:09

looks like I gotta, you know, you're gonna deal with this or you just

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:12

already knew what was coming. So now that I'm an adult, I realized that at

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:16

these moments it was like, I started to see, I was very mature for my

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:19

age. I've always been like the older parents of groups. I just, I had

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:24

to move a different way than everybody else. And, and I just, you don't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:30

know what you don't know. So at the moment, this is all that is provided

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:34

for me. I didn't know any better and then boom, I served, you know, I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:38

enlisted. I left at 17. At 18 years old, I'm in California. I had never

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:44

been to that side of the country by myself. And you just took me from

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:48

the DMV, which is literally the right side of the country all the way to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:53

the left. And at that point, you're throwing the wolves, man. You got to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:05:56

figure it out.

[Coach D]: 00:05:58

So what made you decide to go into the military?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:02

The recruiters were very persistent. And when I tell you that a lot

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:05

of people have seen things in me that I've never really seen in myself,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:11

they were a big factor because they said, like, there's something

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:14

in you that we know is destined for something bigger. And they were

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:19

the parent figures at the moment that ensured I wasn't skipping school.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:24

And it gave me a sense of purpose to finish school, because I had

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:30

gotten kicked out of. three high schools. So I was, my freshman and sophomore

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:35

year, I was transitioning from schools and I was kicked out of a district

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:39

and I was supposed to be a high school dropout. And at that point, when

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:43

I was set, when I decided to enlist, thought I would change my life,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:47

man. I was like a year and a half behind school. I remember doing

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:50

all seven periods, night school, Saturday school, summer school, while

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:06:57

losing weight to join the service, like. And it was what you had to do.

[Coach D]: 00:07:03

Yeah. All right. So, all right, you go through that, right? There's already, you

[Coach D]: 00:07:08

can start to see some mindset traits that are there, even if you didn't see them

[Coach D]: 00:07:12

at the time, right, the willingness to, okay, I gotta grind and get this thing

[Coach D]: 00:07:14

done in this short amount of time because I have a goal that I'm going after.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:07:17

Right.

[Coach D]: 00:07:19

Of course you were being held accountable, which was fine, but something in you had to

[Coach D]: 00:07:23

do something about it. Then you get into the military. Give me a little bit about

[Coach D]: 00:07:29

your experience of, again, the mental game, right? What did being in the military

[Coach D]: 00:07:34

do for you as far as your personal growth in your mind?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:07:37

I gotta thank the military for, I thrive best in controlled chaos. That's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:07:44

not something that you develop, that's something that is taught. I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:07:47

gotta give thanks to the military for giving me a level of controlling

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:07:54

yourself in fear, controlling yourself in situations that you just will never

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:07:59

really be in yourself. You're talking to a kid who grew up in D.C.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:02

and Maryland and all of a sudden I'm on a 30 foot jump for a pool,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:07

you know, to learn swim call. Didn't do that. I never shot a rifle

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:11

as a child. Right. Um, so you're, you're put into this element where

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:16

it's you, it's either sink or swim. I, that prolonged in my time, except

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:22

for I was 17 years old and now I'm, now I'm on my own and I, I've

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:28

been partying since I was 13, 14 years old. I was, you know, heavy in

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:32

the club scene. Now I'm in this alcoholic seems normal culture. So

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:39

now I'm a high functioning alcoholic because I am getting messed up and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:44

then I'm performing at high levels to run certain, you know, physical

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:49

fitness tests and stuff like that. So it's, it's a mixture of, of mentalities

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:53

and you know, there are good and bad things just like in everything

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:08:56

else, but the biggest takeaway that I will answer your question is the fact

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:09:00

that. My discipline as a professional athlete is on a whole different

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:09:03

level because of my military discipline. So when I say no is no, like I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:09:08

not going out to party. I'm not like, I know what the mission is. I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:09:11

know what the goal is. There's no distraction right now. And I got

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:09:16

to thank the military for that.

[Coach D]: 00:09:19

Man, so that thing you talked about, the distraction, I feel, I talk about this

[Coach D]: 00:09:23

with the community man a lot. I feel like it's man's greatest villain right now.

[Coach D]: 00:09:27

And it comes in so many different ways, a lot of them very subtle, some bluntly

[Coach D]: 00:09:31

obvious right in our face, and still it's easy to fall into these distractions.

[Coach D]: 00:09:37

So I'm glad that you brought that up, that there has to be this hard stop on

[Coach D]: 00:09:40

what you allow in and what you don't, because everything is affecting your path,

[Coach D]: 00:09:45

right? So speaking of path, So you get out of the military, what's life like as

[Coach D]: 00:09:52

soon as you get out of the military? What do you do next?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:09:55

I go into this dark hole of drugs and alcohol.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:01

And in the midst of that, my best friend committed suicide in 2018. So

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:07

that played a role into this dark. But here's the thing is that everybody

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:12

in the military tells you it's okay. It's okay to get messed up seven

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:16

days out of the week. It's okay as a man to, you know, go to the club

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:20

on Thursday and show up to work on Friday hungover, right? So nobody

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:24

really corrected me until. My best friend, and she's like my older sister,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:29

man, her name's Lauren, there was a situation that could have put me

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:35

in jail, and that was my waking point. But also during COVID, I lost

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:43

my significant other to suicide. So I've lost two people, you know,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:49

and now what people don't really take into consideration, my amputation

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:54

was military malpractice. So now I'm forced to walk away from the military

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:10:59

for multiple other reasons, but one of them is military bowel practice

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:03

that leads up to an amputation. I saw how my best friend's death was treated

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:11

and it put me into perspective where I was like, wow, if I was the one who

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:13

would have committed suicide, would you have treated me even worse than what

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:16

you're treating his death, right? Because suicide is seen as being a coward,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:20

whether it's in religion or whether it's being a man or whether it's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:23

being societal. Suicide is seen as a weakness. It's seen as being a

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:29

coward. I studied psychology, man I went from being a high school dropout

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:32

to you know, having a bachelor's in Psychology because I was losing so many

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:37

people So outside of the military who was I didn't know I became this

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:43

frat boy I became this I'm from a town in Maryland that Alcoholism

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:49

just like the military is praised right because nobody looks at you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:11:54

different when you drink. But if it's a different drug, heaven forbid,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:00

you know, I mentioned to you, like, I love using this analogy. Nobody

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:04

freaks out when I say like, Oh, yeah, I don't do heroin. I don't do crack.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:08

But people bug out when I'm like, Oh, I don't drink. What do you mean

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:12

you don't drink? I forgot I just told you I don't drink. Like, why do

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:15

I need to explain myself to you? Like, I don't drink. I don't like to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:18

feel shitty the following day. You know,

[Coach D]: 00:12:21

Yeah.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:21

I have a I have a list of things to do. that it's not a priority.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:25

So I honestly, I spent a lot of time figuring out who I was and I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:29

thought, I knew who I was. I thought I got out and I thought I developed

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:34

this person, but in reality it was false healing.

[Coach D]: 00:12:39

Mm-hmm. Tell me more about that. Why false healing? How do you recognize that

[Coach D]: 00:12:44

and what does that mean?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:45

because as men, we don't really unpack what we have going on. I was

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:50

like, this and this and this and this happened. Now I'm doing this,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:54

this and this. But did we ever talk about or seek help for all these

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:12:59

things that you underwent, right? There's still things that I'm dealing

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:02

with. Right now is my healing period and my healing period hurts. And excuse

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:06

my language, it hurts like a motherfucker because I never talked about

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:11

my child. I never talked about being a man who's been molested and sexually

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:16

assaulted, right? I've never talked about never really having a sense

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:21

of belonging. Why? It started since I was a child. So these are things that,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:25

you know what? Oh, no, man, I'm tough. I joined the military. I served

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:29

10 years. Now I'm a professional athlete. And you can't tell me that that's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:33

not true strength. And I think that that's what's being portrayed.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:36

The average person, man these days feels that. to be strong, you have

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:43

to be the David Goggins and the Jaco in your face, stupid ice bats

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:49

at four in the morning, disrespecting women by calling them out of

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:54

their names or whatever the case may be. I feel like that's what's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:13:56

being portrayed. For me, I'm on a different wavelength. Now I'm being

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:14:01

honest about how I feel. Now I'm like, all right, is this gonna benefit

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:14:06

my mental health? There's a lot of things that I will not do to jeopardize

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:14:09

my mental health.

[Coach D]: 00:14:12

really powerful because there's a question that I asked that started to change

[Coach D]: 00:14:19

my life a little bit, right? Actually a lot because everything revolves around this

[Coach D]: 00:14:23

question like, am what the action I'm about to take, or the behavior I'm about

[Coach D]: 00:14:28

to engage in, or the habit I'm about to create, does this contribute to the greatest

[Coach D]: 00:14:33

version of the man I see myself becoming, right? And if it doesn't, the answer is automatically

[Coach D]: 00:14:38

no, there's no if, ands or buts about it. that doesn't serve what I want, right?

[Coach D]: 00:14:44

So I've learned over time, like this discipline of, the answer is just no, hard

[Coach D]: 00:14:49

stop, no. And that becomes unreasonable to a lot of people. So why, like what made

[Coach D]: 00:14:57

you find that in yourself? Like there's these hard stop, no, these boundaries that

[Coach D]: 00:15:02

just don't get crossed.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:05

That's a very good question. I will tell you, society makes it hard for

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:10

men to say no, because we're supposed to fit this, there's a list

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:14

of things that tells you what it is to be a man, right? Like, but for

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:18

me, what you need to know is the person I was in the military, I'm not

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:22

proud of. I was very toxic. I was very, you know, I lied about a lot of

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:28

things. I disrespected people. I disrespected my partners. I built

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:34

this... what I thought being a strong man was, right? This buff, strong,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:41

you never saw me cry. In order for me to heal and push forward, I really

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:47

needed to look that old person in the face. And the biggest struggle

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:50

that I have right now is, is I, there's certain things that I, I try

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:54

my hardest to forgive myself for. And as humans, we tend to live too much

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:15:59

in the past. And I have that issue in my mind where it's like, you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:02

start to think of things that you did in the past or the person you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:05

were in the past that doesn't allow you to live in the present moment. So

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:08

for me, the big switch was watching my best friend die and everybody

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:15

said they would remember him. And the day after he died, everyone forgot.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:21

So why am I going to sit here and try to impress people by what I wear

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:25

or how I act or which shoes I wear? Right? Or what clothes I put on or

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:30

how much money I make. And then fast forward. I lost my partner to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:34

suicide and I witnessed the exact same thing. So there were certain

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:38

things that really aligned into, okay, these are the directions that I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:44

need to head, which is why I will not argue or really need to tell

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:49

anyone why I believe in God and why I believe in a higher purpose.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:53

Because if I could easily, everything that I'm telling you that I've done

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:16:57

and I've been and I've witnessed, I should not be where I'm at right

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:01

now. And I have every right in the book to sit here and be like, well,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:05

you know, I'm disabled, I am not going to compete in Paralympic sprinting

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:10

or adaptive crossfit or try to make a winter games for the Paralympics

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:15

or do a third of the things that I do, but I think, especially men, I think

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:22

people, but especially men need to hear these things because to go

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:27

back to what I just said, we're being told how to act. We're being told.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:32

what portrays a man, but then now everybody, right? What do women say?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:36

Men ain't shit. That's all you see on social media. Oh, if you don't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:39

make six figures and above, that ain't the kind of man that I need. What

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:43

do you bring to the table? Because I'm gonna tell you right now, the average

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:46

woman right now cannot out cook me in the kitchen. So let's really

[Coach D]: 00:17:51

Yeah.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:51

dive down into what it is that you bring to the table. And Drake said

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:56

it best, man, you gotta be some type of person to make me not wanna

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:17:59

go to sleep at nine o'clock. because I'm in a profession right now where

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:03

my time is valuable, my career is number one, sleep is priority, my

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:10

nutrition is priority. So if you think that I'm 21 years old and I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:13

going to be texting you at three in the morning talking about sneaky

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:17

link, whatever, you got the wrong one, man. We are grown

[Coach D]: 00:18:20

Mmm.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:20

ass people. If we're going to do some stuff, it better be before nine

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:24

o'clock, right? So all

[Coach D]: 00:18:25

Yo,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:25

these

[Coach D]: 00:18:25

it's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:26

factors,

[Coach D]: 00:18:26

looking for the bed.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:27

you know what I'm saying? So all these factors play a role into what

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:30

I do. To be quite honest with you, don't have nobody checked on me,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:34

man. Nobody checked on me when I got out of the military. Nobody checked

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:38

on me when I lost my leg. I've had 14 surgeries. Where were all the people

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:44

at when John had the tab and I was swiping my credit card, right? And

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:49

we were down in downtown San Diego. Everybody knew who I was, right?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:52

And you knew the girls were always around John and you knew your boy

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:18:57

was always gonna hook you up with a meal or you knew where were all those

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:01

people at. And the same thing happened in my childhood when I would

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:05

get in trouble, right? Like where was y'all at? Y'all was there when

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:08

I got the table with the bottle, right? Y'all was there when I got you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:12

in VIP. Where y'all at now? So as a 32 year old man, I'm not afraid

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:19

to be alone, man. I understand humans work in community and groups and whatever

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:24

the case may be. And I love, I am part of plenty of men's groups.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:28

But if you wanna ask me who I talk to on a daily basis, it's the five

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:31

people I got pinned on my text messages. Those are the five people

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:36

I text on a daily basis. And if I text someone out of there and they

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:39

don't respond, I don't even allow it to affect me because you're not

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:42

that person in my circle.

[Coach D]: 00:19:43

Yeah.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:43

So all of those factors played a role into how and what I'm living

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:19:48

right now. That just really doesn't allow me to act out a character.

[Coach D]: 00:19:54

I love this. It sounds like you have these boundaries that are set that are healthy

[Coach D]: 00:19:57

for you, especially in the season of healing that you're in. It's really important

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:01

in the next

[Coach D]: 00:20:01

to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:01

video.

[Coach D]: 00:20:01

be able to have things not crowd your space that are unnecessary. And so I applaud

[Coach D]: 00:20:06

you for having those boundaries set. And you've mentioned a few times about this,

[Coach D]: 00:20:09

this amputation, and I don't want to harp on this because I know that you are

[Coach D]: 00:20:12

not defined by this. It actually

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:14

Yeah.

[Coach D]: 00:20:14

made you exactly who you are today. And you needed that moment. So, but you know,

[Coach D]: 00:20:19

the audience is going to wonder this amputation. How did the amputation happen?

[Coach D]: 00:20:25

14 surgeries, just run us through this timeline.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:29

Okay, but first I'm gonna ask you what was your impression when you first

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:32

saw me at the gym?

[Coach D]: 00:20:34

I was impressed. Let me tell

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:36

Ha

[Coach D]: 00:20:36

you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:20:36

ha!

[Coach D]: 00:20:36

what I saw first. What I saw first, I went to go sit down in the break room area

[Coach D]: 00:20:42

and I got my man's leg sitting right here and his bag, but nobody's around. I'm

[Coach D]: 00:20:49

sitting there, there's a leg here, there's a bag, and I'm like, all right, I understand

[Coach D]: 00:20:52

what's going on here. I wanna meet this guy. That's actually what I thought in

[Coach D]: 00:20:55

my mind, I wanna meet this guy. And then we came walking past each other, I'm like,

[Coach D]: 00:20:58

dude, what's up? I told you, I think I've seen your videos, you keep working hard.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Coach D]: 00:21:02

So we passed each other and then you know, you circled back around later on.

[Coach D]: 00:21:05

So I was like, yeah, this is, I'm inspired. And I'm more inspired knowing what

[Coach D]: 00:21:10

I know now. So that's why I want you to share what you can to get people to

[Coach D]: 00:21:15

this point where you're at this non-victim mentality.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:18

Yeah, no, I appreciate you asking and it does get repetitive. However,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:21

I'm gonna just give you the condensed version. I got into an accident.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:26

The military tried to repair it. It wasn't the accident. That's I need the,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:32

like I wish the media would understand that it's not the accident that

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:35

caused my amputation. It was military medicine trying to repair my lower

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:41

body. And it was like, it was just too many surgeries. that by the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:46

time I was, by the time it was time for me to leave the service, I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:51

was already jacked up. And I had asked for an amputation at 28 before

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:55

I got out of the military because my biggest fear was to come to the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:21:59

civilian world and have to deal with this injury. Because here's the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:02

thing, in 2018, 19 and 2020, you would have met me, you would not

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:08

have watched me move the way that I move now. I was by definition disabled.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:13

I had a lower extremity salvage. I had a, I had drop foot, I had an

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:17

Achilles replacement, I had bone marrow transfusions, I had cartilage

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:22

replacement, dude, you name it. Like I had, I had cadaver, like, and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:26

it was just, it was, they tried repairing it, it did not work, I wore

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:31

a surgical halo, cotton infection, healed from it, went in, and then

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:35

when COVID happened, I was put on pause, fast forward, past COVID,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:41

I went back into the hospital, I said, hey, listen, I know the world just

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:44

stopped, I got it. but we got to pick this back up. And they wanted

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:48

to do a 13th lower extremity reconstruction surgery. I wasn't gonna do that.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:55

And they were against it. You can't just go into medical and be like,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:22:58

hey, chop my leg off. It's not that easy. It's a lot political than that.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:02

So I was angry and I called a lot of people and they told me, you know,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:09

you gotta advocate for yourself. So I felt God was with me in this

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:13

one, man. because I walked in and I held my ground and I was vocal about

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:17

what I needed to be vocal about. And then she was like, this is what

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:21

you want. And I stand to this and I can call her and ask her. I said,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:27

if and when this happens and you see me on TV for some sort of sport,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:33

remember we had this conversation.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:38

And now two years deep into an amputation, here we are.

[Coach D]: 00:23:44

All right, so let's talk about where we are because this is where the story just

[Coach D]: 00:23:47

gets crazy. And this

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:23:49

Right.

[Coach D]: 00:23:49

is the mindset part that I want everybody to pay attention, who's listening to this,

[Coach D]: 00:23:54

pay attention to how mindset affects every part of your life when you open up and

[Coach D]: 00:23:59

receive what it's bringing you, right? So, all right, so you told this lady this,

[Coach D]: 00:24:03

all right? You have the amputation and then you get out, what is your first, like

[Coach D]: 00:24:10

what's your mission when you get out of this amputation? Like what do you set

[Coach D]: 00:24:13

out to do?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:15

Biggest mission was to get back into sports. I was an Olympic weightlifter.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:20

I've always been a weightlifter, man. Listen, I will send you a picture. I was

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:23

275, 12% body fat in the military. I was a big

[Coach D]: 00:24:27

E-Jet. Jet!

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:29

boy. Like my traps, and it's crazy, right? So when people like look

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:34

at me now, and they're like, wow, you're a big dude. I'm like, I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:36

small right now. I just wanted to get back into sport, man. And again,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:42

I'm gonna keep relying, I'm gonna keep using God as an example, because

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:47

the people that God put around me, it was, dude, it was way too orchestrated

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:51

for it not to happen the way it did. The person who took me to my amputation

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:24:56

is Olympian and wide receiver for the Eagles, Devon Allen. That's the man

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:01

who sat with me in my amputation. That's my best friend. Like that is, that is

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:04

the man who saw me. He moved to Maryland training for Paris or for

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:09

Tokyo. saw a guy with a prosthetic, I wore a different prosthetic when

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:13

I had a salvaged limb, and then next thing you know, him and I are

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:16

training and got stuck together during COVID, we're running on the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:19

track. And I remember one day, dude, I called him, picked him up in one

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:23

of my like drunk, you know, drug episodes, and I was crying, man. And I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:29

like, I just wanna, you know, compete. And he's like, well, why don't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:33

you? And the victim mentality in me wanted to be like, cause I got a messed

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:37

up leg, but I didn't, you know, it was just like a conversation. So when

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:41

the amputation got approved, I had 30 days to get everything ready. You

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:47

get what I'm saying? And in that timeframe, I had given up me, I had

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:52

given up alcohol. I had given up animal products, right? So it was

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:25:57

just the way things occurred. It was just way too orchestrated where it was

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:01

like amputation happened in the hospital during COVID. I'm chilling,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:07

man. I just want to cramp. Two places that ginger ale hits different,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:11

hospitals and airplanes don't at me. All right, that's all I wanted.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:16

And you know, and Devin was sitting

[Coach D]: 00:26:19

Yeah.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:19

there, man. Devin and my best friend who passed away in 2018, his mom

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:23

flew in from South Carolina and she also took care of me. And it was just,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:30

Devin is probably one of the most talented athletes. but honestly one

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:35

of the best humans I've ever had the privilege of being friends with.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:39

And Devin was the reason that it was like, okay, I'm witnessing you.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:44

You don't have a lot of friends. You're very reserved. You're very

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:48

to yourself. You know, you train and you play video games. I used

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:51

to give him crap cause he never wanted to go out with me. And I learned

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:26:55

a lot from him. And that was the thing was like, when we went into this,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:00

I just had a two time Olympian and You know, at the time he wasn't with the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:05

Eagles, but I had an Olympian with me training for Tokyo and it was just,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:10

what's the next step? How do we get you to a platform? And then I did

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:16

a one-legged power clean, six days post amputation that went viral on

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:19

social media, and that's what opened up the door, you know, that's what

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:24

opened up the door and again, orchestrated because Sonny Webster,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:29

who's a big Olympic weightlifter in in the social media space and in the Olympic

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:35

weightlifting world. He was the one who reshared my video. That was

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:39

my coach. And that's what we're viral in the UK, right? Then Alex Smith,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:45

Alex Smith had a gruesome injury. We connected through hanger clinic

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:49

and Kenny Maine and all this other stuff. So Kenny Maine or Alex Smith,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:53

I called that, I messaged Alex Smith before my amputation and Alex Smith

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:27:58

said, this is what's holding you back. No average person can sit here and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:03

tell you these, and I'm not name dropping, I'm just letting you know,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:06

like these are the people that, at the time, these were the people in

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:10

my circle. These were the people who made it like possible. And then

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:14

I just remember starting a GoFundMe to help me get to Paris and Derek

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:19

Holland, pitcher for the Rangers donated, right? Very good friend of

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:24

mine, Alex Smith donated. And it was just all of these pro athletes that

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:28

just really started the stuff. It went by so fast that like to think

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:35

you'd have thought I'd been doing this my whole life. And I'm not

[Coach D]: 00:28:37

Mmm.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:37

saying that in an arrogant manner. I'm just saying like I'm really well

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:42

known in a lot of spaces that the average person is not known in. You

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:46

met me as the first amputee to train at Collective. I'm the first and only

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:50

amputee to train there. So this is God's plan, man. I don't I don't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:28:56

need to prove to anybody why I belong. As much as I try my hardest not to live in the past,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:03

this was, what's meant for you cannot be taken.

[Coach D]: 00:29:06

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that. Oh, also, what's meant for you will not pass you by as

[Coach D]: 00:29:14

long as you're doing the work and taking the action necessary

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:16

Right.

[Coach D]: 00:29:16

when it comes. And that's you're right in the middle of that right now. So you

[Coach D]: 00:29:20

and I had a conversation the other day. You told me about all these things you

[Coach D]: 00:29:22

have going on. Let's connect that back to when you told that lady, remember,

[Coach D]: 00:29:27

you're going to see me, you know, doing a pro sport. You're going to see me on

[Coach D]: 00:29:31

the news. You're going to see me on TV, whatever. What it would. Let's just

[Coach D]: 00:29:34

give everybody a list of all the things you have coming up now.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:38

Oh man. So I am, I'm racing in Oklahoma city. That'll be my last meet for

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:44

the season. And then here's the thing is in this, in this journey, there's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:48

been so much adversity that I could have easily given up in two years.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:50

I got kicked off my team. So I'm here in Claremont Florida for no reason

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:54

because I'm no longer on the team. In the midst of that, every time

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:29:59

it was like, it's never been, I've got the next meet. It's how am I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:04

going to pay for the next meet? I'm not sponsored. Right? So that like,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:10

and that's what people need to understand. Like it's just been, I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:13

went from Maryland to Texas. Texas did not play out, moved to Ohio. Ohio

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:21

did not plan out, moved to Florida. I'm in the midst of moving to Austin.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:26

This is all in two years. And in those, and in, and in that, right. Like

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:31

I got to train next to Joe burrow in Ohio, Khalid Kareem. who is literally

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:39

my best friend, little brother, plays defensive end for the Colts.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:42

You know, man, Florida, here, I've met so many Olympians, so many different

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:49

CrossFit athletes and business owners and other amputees that wanna be like

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:54

me, right? So there's a lot that happened in two years. So I've got

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:30:59

Oklahoma City coming up. I didn't get to make internationals because

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:02

I had to make an adult decision with everything. I got kicked off

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:05

the team. 20 days post national or pre nationals. What did I do? I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:13

went to collective and I trained three weeks because my goal is to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:16

make the Paralympic team this year. Would it have been great to be on

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:20

the world team and have been to Paris 100% but was meant to be yours

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:24

cannot be taken. And it was just not in my cards to go to world. What

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:28

did I do? I went to Austin and in three weeks, the amount of people that

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:33

I met, bro, everywhere I went, they were like, how do you? other and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:38

you know blah it was just the craziness right so ending the season and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:43

then I jump into CrossFit which is you know I'm competing in Australia

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:48

I'm training in Dubai I'm training in Iceland I've got speaking engagements

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:54

coming up I've got photo shoots I've got two magazines that want to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:31:58

show my story I've got I've got another podcast in like two hours

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:03

after this right so it's It's a lot. And what people also need to know

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:07

is I wasn't prepared for this because after service, I moved to Europe.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:12

I was trying to disappear. I was trying to go ghost. I wanted to take

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:15

care of John and John only and who was John going to be in here? We're

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:18

sitting in 2023 where I'm letting you know, like I don't have room to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:22

breathe. I don't, I go to red carpet events. I, you know, I get to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:26

do a lot of stuff for the adaptive community and the disabled community.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:30

Is it stressful? Yeah, man, I don't want people in my business, but

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:34

I feel like I was put in this position to make a difference. And that's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:39

sense of purpose. I think that's what we've lost. Men have lost a sense

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:42

of purpose. Social media is telling you a bunch of BS that what you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:49

think is happiness and what it is that you need to pursue. I feel

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:53

like the common thing that men are supposed to pursue these days are all

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:32:56

these BBLs and lip fillers and all of this artificial stuff. But if you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:02

come... But if you're a little too fat, right, like you're not good

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:05

enough for a 10 or whatever you call it. So I think that it's a double

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:12

standard.

[Coach D]: 00:33:16

So I picked up on two key things here, right? You mentioned how it's a lot going

[Coach D]: 00:33:24

on right now and it's gonna be a little overwhelming because you weren't prepared

[Coach D]: 00:33:27

for this. And the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:28

Yeah.

[Coach D]: 00:33:28

other part saying that, you know, the universe kind of lined up with everything.

[Coach D]: 00:33:32

So in the middle of all this, a genuine question from man to man, heart to heart, how

[Coach D]: 00:33:38

are you doing with everything?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:41

I appreciate you asking. The average person doesn't ask me because I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:44

the strong person, right? I'm supposed to be everyone's beacon of hope.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:48

I'm doing well. I will tell you, I went into the darkest place of

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:52

my life in November. I had an incident happen with the media and some

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:33:56

veterans that I served with. But you know, my faith kept me aligned.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:02

I honestly think I right now am in a phase in my life where I've gotten

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:08

comfortable being by myself, which is a blessing. I used to always need

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:12

to do stuff with people. I always needed to go out. And I pay a lot

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:17

of tribute to that, to a lot of the men in my life that hold me accountable.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:21

I just told you Khalid Karim is, you know, he plays for the Colts,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:25

but he's not an NFL player to me. That's my best friend. That's like my

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:28

little brother. And we hold each other accountable. Devon Allen. I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:33

learned a lot from him. He goes to practice, he comes home. He's at

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:38

home, he's eating healthy, he's playing video games. It's a constant thing.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:42

So when you hear these things on social media that say, tell me who

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:45

your friends are and I'll tell you who you are, or surround yourself

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:48

around five billionaires and you could be the sixth, I genuinely believe

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:51

that. Do I have mental health issues? Absolutely. And that's what

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:34:56

pisses me off about social media. Right now we're in Pride Month. You

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:00

got all these people telling you to be yourself. 80% of these people aren't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:04

even living their truth. But they're taking that million dollar picture,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:10

they might not even be happy. You've got celebrities posting about

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:15

mental health, oh I donated $100,000 to the mental health suicide prevention

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:20

line. What did you do after that? Nobody talks about, you don't just go

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:26

through things and then you heal and then that's it. Nobody talks about

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:29

how is it that if you're trying to get a six pack, you're meal prepped.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:33

If you're trying to get biceps, you go to the gym, right? If you're

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:37

trying to be spiritual healthily, you go to church, you go to Bible

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:41

study. Why does nobody emphasize on mental health? Why does nobody

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:45

talk about the days that you wake up from depression, like sad? There

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:48

are days that I'll text people and I'll be like, how you doing? I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:51

sad, why? I don't know, I shouldn't have a reason to tell, I shouldn't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:35:56

have a reason to be sad. I wake up mad, I wake up moody. People don't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:01

talk about these things. I do. I am transparent with everything. Actual

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:08

mental health. I actually live mental health every day and every day

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:14

is showing up and my goal is just showing up better than yesterday. It's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:18

not about the five-year plan. It's not about how am I going to make

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:21

this next million dollars, right? It's how are you showing up today? How

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:26

did you give back to society? Were you true to yourself? Or did you sell

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:32

your soul for a contract? Did you sell your soul for your peace? Did

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:36

you sell your soul for, because here's the thing that we get twisted.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:40

Every single person that is able to pay rent, not have to worry about

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:47

getting food, can pay their water, can buy a shirt if they like it, whether

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:51

it's one shirt. That's being rich, man. Do the math in how much we

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:36:57

spend in rent, utilities, your car note, your insurance. If all of that

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:02

is covered, you're rich, man. Just because you ain't got the commas

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:07

in the bank account doesn't mean you get to be unhappy. I've seen homeless

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:11

people feeding their dogs, man, with more happiness than the average human

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:17

in 2023. And I think we've lost our sense of what is it that makes you

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:22

happy? Why? Because the Kardashians are telling you, you gotta look

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:27

a certain type of way, so our women are trying to look like them.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:30

when in reality the average person doesn't look like that. Then you have

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:33

guys like Jake Paul telling the average man that they need to do X, Y,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:37

and Z to be, you know, and then you have society telling you that

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:40

if you go to the gym, you're arrogant and you're, you know, self-centered

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:45

and you're conceited because of the way you look. Man, I'm not about that.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:51

And

[Coach D]: 00:37:52

Yeah.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:52

I go to the gym because I have a passion for fitness. I love slinging

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:37:55

weight. I love sprinting. I love being active. I've been active for almost

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:00

17 years of my life now. It's not gonna stop. The other thing is people

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:04

don't really understand. I tell the average disabled person, you need

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:07

to go to the gym because you just made your life harder by being an

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:10

amputee. So CrossFit, Adaptive CrossFit isn't for you to be the most competitive

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:16

person. Adaptive CrossFit is teaching people that if you fall off a wheelchair,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:20

you can get back up. Adaptive CrossFit is

[Coach D]: 00:38:23

powerful.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:23

giving me a stronger core. so I can stand in the bathroom while I shower

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:27

because I'm missing a whole ass leg. And it's the same thing that I talk

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:32

to people. People don't like to train with, oh, you're a professional

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:35

athlete. Oh, you're stronger than me. Man, if this is your 100%, that's

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:38

all I need from you. I tell older folks, I'm not asking you to be

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:42

an Olympian. I'm not asking you to go to the gym for three hours like I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:45

do. What I'm asking you is to get mobile and get healthy because I'm

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:50

pretty sure you have grandchildren or you have kids that you would like to see.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:38:55

and not have to worry about being in the hospital or being stuck on a couch

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:39:00

or being stuck in a wheelchair. Like these are things that people don't consider,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:39:03

but going to the gym is toxic.

[Coach D]: 00:39:08

Mm. Man. So there's so much here and a lot has opened up that really shares

[Coach D]: 00:39:15

like your heart, your mindset that's going to really serve a lot of people. Your

[Coach D]: 00:39:19

story is just beginning, right? We go back and look at, right, the path that was,

[Coach D]: 00:39:24

you know, kind of chosen for you through childhood and then what you choose,

[Coach D]: 00:39:28

chose to do when you started being able to make adult decisions, going into the

[Coach D]: 00:39:31

military. establishing a certain mindset of structure and accountability in

[Coach D]: 00:39:35

the military, bringing that out into the real world after, after having this, this

[Coach D]: 00:39:42

traumatic situation with the leg, not falling into a victim mindset, going through

[Coach D]: 00:39:46

14 surgeries, finally getting the, the amputation, then saying, you know what,

[Coach D]: 00:39:52

I'm going to be a professional athlete. I'm not sponsored. I'm gonna find a way to

[Coach D]: 00:39:55

pay for this stuff. I'm gonna move here, move here, move here. Within two years,

[Coach D]: 00:39:57

you've done so much. And now your voice is starting to be heard a lot more because

[Coach D]: 00:40:02

you have a lot to speak on that is actually beneficial to not only men, but anybody

[Coach D]: 00:40:07

who's willing to understand how the power of your mindset and not staying so attached

[Coach D]: 00:40:14

to the story as your identity can really make a huge difference. And so I just

[Coach D]: 00:40:20

wanna appreciate you for the way that you're showing up. I can feel right now,

[Coach D]: 00:40:24

like you're really at the kind of this beginning portion of this ride that's

[Coach D]: 00:40:29

about to accelerate.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:40:30

Oof. Yeah. Ha

[Coach D]: 00:40:32

And

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:40:32

ha

[Coach D]: 00:40:32

I

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:40:32

ha!

[Coach D]: 00:40:32

can, I feel that for you. So yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to be here.

[Coach D]: 00:40:37

And I just want to ask you this question to close it out. What does it mean to you to

[Coach D]: 00:40:43

be a committed man?

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:40:46

What does it mean to me to be a committed man? I think being a committed

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:40:52

man for myself is honestly just being a hundred with what you say. A lot

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:00

of people say one thing and their actions are different. I see this

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:08

a lot in the influencer world where they take these sponsorships and

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:14

not really using the product or... You have people telling you that they're

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:17

sober, but they're not really sober, they're still in the party at

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:20

the weekends, but they're doing it for whatever reason. Committed to

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:24

me is I'm committed to everything I'm doing in the most authentic

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:30

manner. I'm committed to my community, whether it's my church community,

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:37

whether it's my adoptive community, adoptive kids, foster kids, the

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:43

disabled community, there's just so much commitment. I'm accountable, man.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:48

I never held myself accountable back in the day. I'm accountable now. I don't

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:53

need a book or a school or society to tell me what box I need to fit

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:41:59

in. Committed to me is that if I were to die tomorrow, I did everything

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:42:04

in my power to live a fulfilled life. And I did everything in my life to give

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:42:10

back when I could.

[Coach D]: 00:42:15

I'm happy to know you and I'm happy to collaborate on some things down the road.

[Coach D]: 00:42:20

And I'm glad we got to spend this time together. And I know something you shared

[Coach D]: 00:42:24

in this podcast is going to serve a man who's listening to us. So thank you again

[Coach D]: 00:42:28

for the way you're showing up.

[John-Edward Heath]: 00:42:30

Yes sir, thank you for having me man.

[Coach D]: 00:42:33

Yes, sir. I appreciate you being on. And we'll see y'all on the next episode.