If you want to know exactly how Tim McGraw transformed his mind and body, you can read the 266 pages of his brand new book, Grit & Grace.
But I am not here to give away his daily exercise routines, which include things like rolling candlesticks and oil pump squats and hip hike walks. Or his charming stories about the advice he got from Johnny Paycheck years and years ago. Or the way he stays focused, stays motivated, stays present and just basically stays him. Or the recipes. I mean, my God, the recipes alone are worth the price of the entire book. I could eat a bowlful of his spicy chimichurri sauce by myself. (I’d have to pay for it with the aforementioned rolling candlesticks, but still.)
But at the end of the book, just like McGraw would do after all of an album’s official credits are listed, he shares his acknowledgements. And the last two paragraphs of that section, on page 276, is where he really gets after it.
“It is so important to have the Why’s that drive you. So in closing, my biggest thanks to my Reasons for waking up each day: my girls — Faith, Gracie, Maggie and Audrey,” McGraw writes. “Without them anchoring me and supporting me, I would have no transformation story to tell.”
Then he goes on to thank his mother Betty, his siblings Sandy, Tracey, Cari, Mark and Matthew, his uncle Hank and his father, Tug McGraw. All very sweet.
The last part, though. I did not see this coming. McGraw thanks his Start (Louisiana) High School coach Larry Lub Butler, may he rest in peace. “You never know how much you can change one child’s life for the better by simply showing up consistently,” he says of the man who brought personal and athletic integrity to every game. “He helped shape my athletic ability and helped form the foundation of who I am as a person today.”
Which sounds a lot like a country sing.
Kind of like McGraw’s 1997 ballad about rising above yourself, “One of These Days.”