1. Up and at it – what is your morning routine?
I have a terrible habit of looking at the phone when I wake up.
I read the headlines in the paper online then stare at my fantasy football squad for a while and maybe check that I’ve no pressing emails.
Once I am happy that I can afford to bring Harry Kane in at the weekend if necessary and that Donald Trump hasn’t invaded Fermanagh, I will get up.
I will bring Annabel a coffee to bed if she hasn't beaten me to it. Coffee is religion. I have a rather indulgent machine – Americano, extra strong, almond milk. I won’t speak until I’ve had two. I’m not a chatty morning chap, to put it mildly.
2. What might you eat in a typical working day for...
Breakfast? Breakfast is a pint of warm water with juice of a lemon in it, too much coffee, gluten-free brown toast, boiled duck eggs and smoked mackarel.
Lunch? Whatever is in the fridge and is reasonably healthy. Once a week I go to the caf and have liver, bacon, chips, onions, peas and gravy.
I may vary this occasionally and have a cheeky egg, beans and bacon variation, but liver rocks. Chinese takeaway in Enniskillen used to sell liver bacon chips and gravy. Me and Dad were mad for it.
Evening meal? The most regular, very healthy meal in our house is brown rice, mix of veg bunged in oven, either fish, turkey or a bit of steak on top, with low-salt soy sauce.
We would eat like this most evenings. Sometimes we have a healthy Bolognese, but always with whole-wheat spaghetti.
The Turkish takeaway nearby does amazing shish kebabs – healthy and tasty, tasty, tasty.
3. Is nutrition and 'five-a-day' important to you?
Within reason, it's important. I do like to eat healthily and try to keep the weight off. But I am not a monk and I enjoy life and eating and drinking. I tend to be very healthy at home, when I am in control of it, and I don't beat myself up when I am out or on location with no kitchen.
It’s all about routine and routine changes a lot when you are self employed.
4. Best meal ever?
Ah, now come on ? So many! I spent a weekend in Barcelona a few years back and I announced at five separate meals that each was in my top 10 meals of all time – it may just have been the wine...
5. Do you have a guilty pleasure ?
Bread. Oh God, the bread...
6. Have you ever been on a diet?
If so, how did it go? Yes, various diets for roles for work. I had to lose a lot of weight for To End all Wars but, I have to say, that was a lot easier at the age of 26. Vodka instead of Guinness, basically. Now it's tougher. I tried the Dukan diet last year – meat, meat, meat. It was nonsense – I actually put on weight.
Balanced eating, less beer and more spinning classes works every time.
7. Do you take health supplements?
Occasionally; zinc and Vitamin C in winter. I have IBS type issues, so sometimes I take Aloe Vera juice.
8. How do you relax?
Relaxation is totally important, but it has to be earned. To 'holiday' when you haven’t been working or doing something first feels like being out playing when you haven’t done your homework.
9. Teetotal or tipple?
Tipple, tipple, tipple, triple, tripple.
10. Stairs of lift?
Always the stairs. I won't take a lift unless its more than six floors up in a big building. Claustrophobia. I hate lifts. Small spaces with mechanics that can fail. No, thanks.
11. Do you have a daily exercise regime?
Yes, I have, but after I suffered a slipped disc in my lower left back two years ago, my exercise regime changed a lot. I am back now were I can do a good half-hour interval training on the cross trainer five times a week – 5k each time. I also do lots of core work and pilates. Swimming is great too.
12. Best tip for everyday fitness?
Always sweat once a day. The exercise is as much for the brain as the body.
13. On a scale of one to 10, how fit do you think you are and how fit would you like to be?
Maybe six out of 10 just now, post injury but I always aim for seven.
14. Have you tried, or would you try, alternative therapy?
100 per cent, yes. Acupuncture and deep needling have stopped me limping and got me back in the gym. Not having the release from the cardio was genuinely depressing. Thank you, big sharp needles.
15. Were school sports happy times or do you have a memory you wouldrather forget?
Back then, I was the idiot hiding halfway round the cross-country track, smoking cigarettes which I had stolen from my ma.
16. Did you ever have a health epiphany which made you change your lifestyle?
Smoking, for sure. Woke up one day at 34 and realised I had always had a mantra about stopping at 30 and it was nearly half a decade later. Knocked them on the head there and then. It's one of life's big regrets, the years spent being the stupid person with a fag in my mouth.
17. Best advice for mind and body that you were ever given and would pass on to others?
Laugh, chill and don’t sweat the small stuff. Stress is the mother of all evils.
18. Who inspires you or who would you try to emulate in terms of fitness / attitude to life?
There is no particular person, but I am a big football fan. I think when you see the fitness of the inter-county GAA players in Ireland and compare their expenses to the wages of the pampered Premier league prima donnas, that’s inspiration for us all.
19. What time do you normally get to bed and do you get enough sleep?
I tend to go around midnight and listen to pod cast for a half hour and get up around 8.30 which is more than enough sleep. When I am writing, I get up much earlier. My brain is better in the morning. There is something inspiring and hopeful about the morning, especially in spring and summer. It's good to have a couple of hours of work knocked out by breakfast at 10.
20. Would you say you have a healthy attitude towards your own mortality?
I am certainly more aware of it since turning 40. The one big fact of life is death, but my goal remains to enjoy life, otherwise, what is the point? But, I am certainly going to drink less in the second half of my life than I did in the first.
