AFC Bournemouth
Turning his hand to cooking healthy and nutritious meals has been a real recipe for success for former AFC Bournemouth star Marc Pugh.
By his own admission, Pugh “could not boil an egg” before he embarked on his new venture during his playing days with the Cherries.
The Foodie Footballer now has more than 55,400 followers on Instagram, with Pugh also offering personalised fitness plans and one-to-one advice on healthy eating.
Supporters’ player of the year in 2011/12, Pugh started an 18-module nutrition diploma just after reaching the Championship with the Cherries the following season.
One of the club’s leading appearance-makers, he returned to Vitality Stadium earlier this month to deliver his message to members of the academy, his visit coming on the eve of the start of EFL Youth Development Week.
He told afcb.co.uk: “I’m looking to educate the young players on nutrition and the importance of it for recovery and performance.
“I want to tell them what I’ve learned over the years because, when I was younger, I probably didn’t take it as seriously as I should have because the information wasn’t readily available.
“I educated myself and it started just after I had been promoted to the Championship with Bournemouth.
“It took my performances to the next level. I felt I could run for longer, I was recovering quicker and I was getting stronger.
“It was a massive part of my rise and my success with the club. If I can help the lads in any way as they look to progress their careers and maybe train with the first team then I’d be delighted.”
AFC Bournemouth community player of the season in 2014/15, Pugh scored 56 goals in 312 games for the club during a successful nine-year stay between 2010 and 2019.
“My wife always jokes that I couldn’t boil an egg eight or nine years ago!” laughed the 34-year-old, a bargain £100,000 signing from Hereford United.
“I couldn’t cook and relied on her to do it all. When you rely on other people, you don’t know what they are putting in the food and what you are putting in your body.
“I educated myself and did a lot of studying. It started with a diploma in nutrition and I’ve done a lot more courses since then. The most recent one was about athletic performance and weight management and that was a real eye opener.
“Learning a new skill away from football was very refreshing for me. If you have a bad game, you don’t want to dwell on it and you need something else to think about. You get back on it in training on a Monday and look to put things right. It was a really healthy thing to do for me.”
As well as giving a presentation and answering questions from the club’s under-18 and development squads, Pugh was also on hand to speak to players on an individual basis.
He added: “You have to be accountable. It’s okay me coming in and giving them all this information, but it’s only scratching the surface. There is so much more that goes into it.
“We spoke a lot about nutrition but players need to think about their routine, how they sleep and their habits. It’s about improving the small percentages in your daily life.
“It’s all interlinked but every individual is different. Everyone has different intolerances and people perform better with certain food groups.
“It’s about getting the right balance for each individual. It’s not robotic and I’m not telling them they should be doing this or that. It’s about giving them the tools to implement into their daily life.”
Although having not officially hung up his boots, Pugh’s current venture restricts him to playing five-a-side with his mates three times a week back home in Lancashire.
Pugh, who had spells at QPR and Shrewsbury after leaving the Cherries, has also given nutrition advice to academy players at Swansea and could put on further sessions at Vitality Stadium.
Asked whether he had ever seen any bad examples of nutrition during his career, Pugh replied: “I’ve seen some proper horror stories!
“You look at some players and see how talented they are but they don’t live their lives correctly. It makes a massive difference.
“I won’t name names but I have seen players who could have gone on to the next level and had a long career in the Premier League if they had taken nutrition seriously. Everything adds up and to be a healthy athlete will make you a good athlete.
“We didn’t have this information available when I was a young player. Social media is out there but there’s a lot of false information as well. Sometimes, you don’t know what to believe.
“I’ve been there and done it. I’ve trialled and tested various strategies to help me perform on a matchday and to help me recover. I’ve made mistakes as well.
“It’s about getting the lads to buy into that and to try different things for themselves.
You don’t want to try something different on the day of a game because you don’t want to upset your stomach. You should try things early in the week or in pre-season. Finding what works for you is key.”
You can find Marc Pugh on Instagram @thefoodiefootballer.
