Sue Rynhart: ‘I don’t drink alcohol but love an evening cup of tea’

7am Up with the kids and it's madness getting everyone up and out. Breakfast is porridge, made with water, with berries or raisins with coffee and milk. If touring, I will bring quick oats and fruit with me as often I'll be too nervous to stomach much else before performing that evening.

10am After walking the kids to school, a round trip of 6km, I'll have another coffee with melon and a croissant. The baby is two and at home with me during the day so we have a relaxed morning, he joins in with my vocal warm ups and we watch a cartoon while I catch up on work. I do Zumba and Pilates once a week and we all love dancing together.

12pm I'll chop veggies like peppers, carrots, cucumber and put them out with hummus which we snack on during the day. The kids do this scheme at school called Food Dudes, which has been great for introducing healthy eating habits. For the baby, I make some soldiers and an egg and I will have the veggies and dip with him.

3pm I'm usually too preoccupied to think of drinking water but have been getting enough lately after I discovered this handy app, iHydrate, which sends a reminder notification. I pick up the kids from school in the car and the afternoon is spent bringing them to their activities and helping with homework.

First Look: Inside the Virgin Mary, the Dublin bar with no booze

---

Walking up an appetite: Our favourite Irish walks with good food at the end

---

Walks with a feast at the end: Share your favourites

---

5.30pm We sit down together for an early dinner. I will make spaghetti Bolognese with a quorn version for my husband, who has been vegetarian for years. We always have a green salad on the side.

8pm I don't drink alcohol but love an evening cup of tea. I'll get a bit peckish and have some some dark mint chocolate or wasabi seaweed thins and olives. After doing some work, we are in bed by 10 most evenings. It's not easy to keep up your career as a performer or musician when you have kids, but it's possible, and so wonderful to be able to do both. I thank my lucky stars I am so well supported by friends and family.

THE VERDICT

By Dr Conor Kerley, dietetics consultant, researcher and lecturer at University College Dublin and Technological University Dublin

Breakfast Traditional oats are a tasty, cheap and nutritious start to the day and can help lower cholesterol. Berries are rich in nutrients and provide antioxidants. Frozen mixed berries are cheaper and convenient though you might want to defrost in the fridge overnight. Raisins contain iron and although dried fruit have more calories than say grapes, they are more concentrated in nutrients. Zumba is fun – wise to opt for exercise you enjoy, you're more likely to do it, and being part of a class adds an important social element.

Snacks The melon is mainly water so good for hydration with vitamin A and C, but croissants are refined flour with butter with some sugar and salt. Seaweed is good for iodine and for vitamin E.

Lunch Caution with some shop bought hummus, which can be high in fat. This is a light lunch and some may not find this adequately filling.

Dinner Spag bol provides many nutrients. Some ways to increase the healthfulness would be to use wholemeal pasta and include plenty of veggies – think onions, pepper, carrot, celery. Also, use lean mince and perhaps reduce or even replace with lentils which provide a meaty texture but lots of fibre and folate with less fat. Quorn, a "mycoprotein" fermented in vats from a fungus found in the soil, is a handy substitute for meat but quite processed.

Tips Sue's breakfast and morning snack are low on protein so I would suggest adding walnuts and pumpkin seeds for protein, omega 3 fats and zinc or nut butter on wholemeal toast instead of the croissant. Sue could add toasted wholemeal pitta to her lunch.

My Daily Diet series
- Bryan Dobson
- Helen Steele
- Jonathan Forbes
- Mike Ross
- Sean Rainbird
- Hanif Kureishi
- Nuala McGovern
- Ellen Cranitch
- Ian Marber
- Caroline O'Donoghue