Belfast actor Darren Franklin: Somehow, I always forget how good exercise - and not drinking - is for your mental health

I don't get out of bed in the morning unless I am contractually obliged to. Even then, it takes at least six alarm calls.

Eating breakfast makes me feel hungrier, so I normally have a coffee and try to eat food as late on as possible.

At lunchtime I'll have soup and a sandwich or a bowl of porridge (After a second coffee and a snack).

Evening meal will be a pasta or rice dish of some sort. If I'm performing in the evening though, I'll have my 'big meal' at lunch time and my soup for dinner.

I'm vegetarian, so I take the occasional protein shake. I'm taking vitamin D tablets at the minute because it's winter and the sun stops existing here.

Regardless of what they're called, all diets work the same way. If I'm trying to lose weight, I aim to eat less and move more. I use an app called MyFitnessPal to help me track calories which is useful but that might not be for everyone.

I love Indian and Thai food, so whichever of those takes my fancy.

Recently, I've started back to the gym and I've cut down on alcohol. Somehow, I always forget how good exercise (and not drinking) is for your mental health – I hate that it works every time. I've struggled with anxiety for years but I'm on some medication now that has been beneficial for me. One of the best things I have ever done was ask for help when I needed it and speak to a therapist. When people feel physically sick, they have no hesitation in asking a trained professional for help.

If you can, walk somewhere.

I played Gaelic the whole way through my time in school. When I was a bit younger, I was a fan of trying them all: football, basketball, water polo etc. Unfortunately, I was terrible at hurling.

Ah sure, here...

Lift in the morning, stairs when I wake up fully.

At the minute, I'm reading Stasiland by Australian author, Anna Funder, a journalist who lived in Germany after reunification. It's a fantastic book about East Berlin and the people who lived there: people who worked for the Stasi (secret police) and the individuals who tried to resist the regime. Having just finished the run of Propaganda: A New Musical at the Lyric, I am really interested in the history of that period.

If I just want something on in the background, I put on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Always good for a laugh.

Having coffee and a snack improves your mood by 76 per cent. That's just science.

I've too many old ones that I keep forgetting about.

My fiancée, Ciara, is off touring at the minute, but when she's home we'll stick music on and cook, then watch some TV together (statistically, Gogglebox). While I'm living on my own, I'll play Call of Duty with my brother and some other mates.

The best person I know has agreed to marry me in July, so that is enough for me next year.

No amount of sleep is ever enough for me. It can take quite a while after a show for the adrenaline to fade away as well, so I often won't sleep until after 2am.

I regret not becoming fluent in Irish when I was younger. I suppose it's never too late, though.

Family has always been the most important thing to me and that still holds true.

I primarily suffered from health-based anxiety. For anyone who thinks like this, the book It's All In Your Head by Irish neurologist, Suzanne O'Sullivan, is a brilliant read. I thought my anxiety would get worse at the start of the pandemic because of the real threat of getting seriously ill or worse. Oddly, though, my anxiety improved. This has helped me in general, because my thinking has shifted to the idea that we will all get sick with something or other as we get older and there's no point worrying about it before it happens.