04 February 2024 , 07:00
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Life has come full circle for Marc Pugh, who now spends his days sharing the same insight that took his career to new levels.
Pugh, a former Premier League footballer with Bournemouth, has channeled his passion for nutrition into a new career: he's now an online health coach providing nutritional advice, bespoke recipes and workouts to clients across all walks of life.
But the 36-year-old knows that when it comes to life after football, he's one of the lucky ones. He was already writing his next chapter during the twilight years of his career instead of fretting over what was next.
"I think whenever you come out of professional football, a lot of people I've spoken to, they really struggle with finding the why and what's next. All some people have ever known is kicking a ball around in front of fans and it's their life, basically," Pugh tells Mirror Football.
"I just had to trust the process and that there was something else after the football. And I'm really, really fortunate that I'm loving what I'm doing now."
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Pugh may call himself 'The Foodie Footballer' but it wasn't until he was 26 that he embraced the kitchen. Prior to that, he admits he couldn't boil an egg, let alone knock up any of the healthy recipes that he regularly concocts and shares with the world on his Instagram page, which has over 55,000 followers.
Like so many other athletes, Pugh's desire for marginal gains is what thrust him into the world of nutrition. After being promoted to the Championship for the first time with Bournemouth back in 2013, he was determined to become the best version of himself for the challenge ahead.
An 18-module nutrition diploma based on fuelling for performance, recovery and overall health and well-being organically grew into a passion. Pugh admits he quickly became "obsessed" with what he was putting into his body and the ramifications of doing so.
Pugh celebrates Bournemouth's promotion to the Premier League (Clive Rose)Within months, he'd gone from a culinary nightmare to a dab hand in the kitchen with nothing but fresh, healthy ingredients, some inspiration from YouTube and his own imagination. His dietary changes had a seismic impact both on and off the pitch. He went from running 11k in games to regularly clocking up 13k, sometimes even 14k.
The changes he implemented have had a positive mental impact, too. He felt he was far more present with his family when football gave him those rare nuggets of downtime.
As so many people who are ahead of the curve often are, Pugh was teased in some quarters for his commitment to nutrition. That's not to say others weren't influenced, though, at a time when Bournemouth were on an upward trajectory under Eddie Howe.
Pugh explains: "People started to see how I was recovering and performing, especially the season after promotion. We won the league and we were passing teams off the park, people were getting fitter.
"I used to say to the chef, 'Can you do some ginger shots for the week?' I'm big on ginger, lemon, black pepper and turmeric shots, great for recovery. Anyway, I started drinking them and the lads, they bought into it as well. And we went from two and three of us to having it to maybe eight, nine, ten.
"It's important you surround yourself with the right people. Everyone bought into the philosophy of Eddie Howe, the way he wanted to play. It was the same with everything else, like nutrition. That really helped me, But I used to love it when I got called busy by some of the lads. Because if you get called busy in football, you know you're doing something right."
As Pugh alludes to, he and Bournemouth went from strength to strength. Not long after tasting Championship football for the first time, Pugh and co were rubbing shoulders with the Premier League's elite following the Cherries' ascent up the leagues.
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Pugh, who also played for the likes of Shrewsbury, Bury and QPR during a near-20 year playing career, now spends his time working with his own clients and visiting clubs in the EFL after joining the organisation's Life Skills Programme.
Pugh played over 300 games for Bournemouth (Christopher Lee)This season alone he's visited 40 clubs in the Football League, giving a 40 minute presentation designed to give nutritional advice. Pugh then gives a physical demonstration in the kitchen where he often draws on his love for Asian and Japanese cuisine.
"We speak in a lot of detail on carbs, proteins, fats. We'll speak a lot about the importance of reading food labels in the supermarket.
"There are loads of other aspects we touch on too. Things like hydration, pre and post match meals, how important fibre, vitamins and minerals are. There are certain foods that can help aid performance and recovery: beetroot for performance and cherries for sleep.
"What we cover depends on the club as well; if I'm doing a section with under 12s, for example, then I need to adapt my presentation to make it specific for them and obviously make it enjoyable as well, because of the younger audience. But it's really interesting. I love it."
The EFL Green Clubs scheme supports clubs all over the country in improving their environmental practices and operations. There are over 50 Green Club members but only two, Forest Green Rovers and Bristol City, have been accredited by GreenCode, the scheme's delivery partner who assess clubs' environmental performance.
Pugh has teamed up with the EFL to share three nutritional recipes to mark Green Football Weekend and to try and encourage people to incorporate more vegetables in their diet.
He adds: "[Green Football Weekend] is massively important. We see as we get older how important [nutrition] is because it catches up with you, as everyone says. And if you start younger and eating loads of vegetables and, you know, good quality foods, you just feel better physically and mentally every day.
"If you've had a bad day with food, say you go out for a big meal like a roast with a sticky toffee pudding, you just want to sleep for the afternoon because you feel absolutely shattered. So fuelling consistently throughout the day, every two or three hours with proper food, getting in high protein, high healthy fats, and a moderate amount of carbohydrates, is really important. Focus on the whole foods.
"Your performance at work, whether you're in an office, a cleaner, whatever it may be, if your hydration's good and your food intake is good, then you're going to just feel so much better. You'll have more energy, you'll have better mental clarity. Your overall health as you get older as well will improve.
"I'm just really passionate about helping others become the healthiest version of themselves and striving to create a happier, healthier world."