Dermot Bannon said he is conscious of staying fit and healthy to see his kids grow up after his own father’s untimely death.
The Room To Improve star’s dad passed away aged 68 in 2007, after suffering a long battle with type-2 diabetes.
He also suffered a heart attack when he was just 50 and Dermot, who turned 50 in May, admits it has made him more aware of his own health and mortality.
The dad-of-three told the Irish Daily Mirror: "I try to be [healthy]. My dad died before his time so I'm always very conscious of minding myself and looking after myself. Just to be there for my kids and my grandkids, not that I have any. It’s kind of about longevity now.
"I've kind of given up on what I look like, it's all on the inside. I do try and watch what I eat and do a bit of exercise… I'm not great at it though,” he added.
“But when you are busy you do tend to run about a bit and my watch tracks how many steps and it is more than you think.”
And the in demand architect has been busier than ever in recent months, filming both his RTÉ hit shows, Room to Improve and Incredible Homes.
"I'm back to full whack,” he explained, but told that part of his healthy habits commitment is trying to limit the amount of time he is spending at work.
“I'm trying now to take weekends off.
"I'm trying to do things at the weekend. if I don't have stuff to do I tend to slip back into work.
"I've started doing barbecues at the weekend, even if it is lashing rain. because that kind of feels like holidays, doesn't it? I don’t mind weather.
"I'm trying to be really conscious of taking a bit of time off because life is short. and I think we were all in this rat race.
“So I have slowed down a little bit, I work really hard during the week now and then I try and take Saturdays and Sundays off."
After Covid caused major delays to his TV shows in the past three years, fans will be happy to hear his series’ are ahead of schedule this time around with Incredible Homes set to return to screen by Autumn.
He revealed: “We are filming and a little bit ahead of ourselves on Room to Improve and we are finishing one next week that goes out on air next January and we have just finished two episodes of Incredible Homes, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say yet but that will be early in the autumn.
“I’ll give you one, we did Spain in Catalonia and Barcelona and all around that.
“Look, it’s nice to be back out there and back to normal.”
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