Though Tyler Marsh played two years of Division I college basketball at Alabama-Birmingham, he soon realized his place was on the sideline. “Coaching is in my blood,” says Marsh, whose father, Donnie, was a longtime college coach. “I wanted to use basketball to make a positive impact in people’s lives.” After stints as an assistant coach in the NBA and WNBA, he became the Chicago Sky’s head coach before last season. (His dad joined the support staff shortly afterward.) With his job often taking him on the road, he was finding it tough to maintain a healthy diet. So Marsh, 38, who lives in southwest suburban Burbank with his wife and their toddler, recently adopted a new discipline to avoid processed food.

Nutrition helper

“Fast food is my vice. I love McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A. Now I have an app, MyFitnessPal, to track food intake and help with accountability. So I’ve got structure. Any athlete feels more comfortable when they have structure. For the last four weeks, I’ve only had two cheat meals. I’m down nine pounds.”

Morning rituals

“I usually get a workout in before the meetings start. I’m about two months into a five-day-a-week weight-training routine, broken between upper-body and lower-body days. There’s cardio, too — mostly walking on an inclined treadmill. If I’m not going into the office, I have a Peloton at home, as well as a walking pad, which is like a miniature treadmill.”

Cage match

“Occasionally I’ll do on-court basketball workouts with my staff. We just put each other through drills for 30 minutes. If there’s an off day when we’re on the road, I find my way to the local batting cages to take a few swings for fun.”

Stretch to the limit

“I try to be thorough in stretching. I may use a massage gun or foam roller to loosen up. The older you get, the more crucial warming up becomes; you learn quickly your body just doesn’t recover as well. I tried to do Pilates once with some of our players, and they blew me out of the water. I was like, My body is just not meant for this.”