ANTI - Wellbeing Secrets of an Exhausted Dad: Air Fryer Regrets, Cold Water Humiliation, and BAD News Binging

The Sunday Best Round Up #36

Mar 02, 2025

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A Bad Start to the Day

Last Sunday morning Dr. Grumpy and his dastardly sidekick, Mr. Tired, came to see me.

Yep I’d had a late finish on Saturday ; midnight!

Which is super-cali-fragolistically late by 51 year old me standards.

I normally like to be tucked up with cocoa by 10.

A Sudden Change of Plans

And late on Saturday night, my kids had announced they wanted to go to the local car boot sale (swap meet for those in the U, S of A) on the Sunday morning.

Normally I’m all in for that.

Nothing more spiritually uplifting than tramping around a muddy field when you’re half awake, looking in the boot of people car’s at the ~~crap~~ unique items that they are trying to ~~rip you off with~~ sell you, whilst your kids scavenge more and more cash off you.

Just absolute heaven in a glass lol.

Jokes obvs., because I love a ‘booty’.

Which is the UK slang for car boot sale; NOT the Sir Mix A Lot wibbly wobbly type (honestly, smut peddler!)

However this new plan to go bootyin’ played havoc with my morning routine.

I’d been hoping to meet some mates for a swim, then head over to the local Weatherspoon’s pub for unlimited coffee and a fat bowl of porridge.

But no.

Selfless dad had to show up and sacrifice his caffeine and oat based breakfast.

I HATE that guy he’s no fun, but probably the better moral guardian.

Sea Swim Shenanigans

Luckily it wasn’t all doom ‘n’ gloom.

I did get my sea swim.

It was a bit choppy so I body surfed for 5 minutes.

As I surfed the last wave into the shore; I went to stand up and got hit by 2 more!

I was face down, splutterin’ and a mutterin’ in the water like a gnarly, asthmatic, old pufferfish.

A friend commended me on my “dignified exit” from the water.

Methinks he was being sarcastic.

Anyhow moving on… scene change, as they say in theatre land…

The Boot Sale Disappointment

Next up was the ‘booty’ which was, to put it bluntly, crap!

I normally buy a book I won’t read, a t-shirt I won’t wear, or some odd piece of sporting kit that sits in the garden unused (last year was an 8 foot boxing punch bag!)

But this time there was nothing worth getting at all 🤣

That said I had a proper existential debate over some silicone air fryer trays at £2.50 a pop.

I was tempted.

There’s an in-joke between some of my mates about air fryers and their cult like status in the world.

I’ve been known to photo bomb our Whatsapp group with… what can only be described as… erm… [filthy content alert] … air fryer porn!

No not really - not actual porn (get your mind out of the gutter Pennywise!)

More ‘discerning and discrete’ photographs (starting to sound a bit iffy again isn’t it tbh) of air fryer cook books and recipes.

So just for the air fryer funz alone I was tempted to buy the trays.

Let alone the game-changing ability to make an entire 5 course French Michelin star dinner in just a silicone tray and a Ninja fryer in under 9 minutes (maybe…!)

But after much deliberation and soul searching I chose to leave the booty silicone tray-less.

By now I was getting tired, and a tad grouchy.

More scene change…

Grumpy, Sleepy, and Moany

Back home I fell asleep on the sofa; awoke about 20 minutes later with my face slobber-stuck to a cushion, feeling horrid!

I proceeded to moan to my wife like a small and thoroughly obnoxious child.

My issue was well …. EVERYTHING!

Work… the kids…the dogs… money… family stuff… and probably some non-buyer’s remorse over ‘my’ air fryer trays.

At which point my wise, and lovely, wife decided to the sensible thing.

Take the kids out for a bit as “dad is ON one…” and let me rest my weary paws.

I was eternally grateful to have a little head space.

Silly Brain vs. Sensible Brain: The Showdown

Of course my mind went straight to unhealthy distraction ‘cos that’s fun.

“Right I’ll head to the shop and buy a massive load of chocolate to piggy my fat head with, and also buy a Sunday paper. So I can sit and get riled up even more by the state of the world page by page.”

A massive sugar crash and depression about the end of modern society beckoned…

Then my sensible brain (at least I think it was mine but I’m not convinced) had some inspiration:

“Why don’t you NOT do those stoo-pid things you just thought of because in about 20 minutes you’ll be back where you were again; grumpy, tired and miserable after a short, admittedly, sweet hit of sugar and moral outrage”.

Silly brain retorted:

“But sugar and moral outrage is so yummy”

Sensible brain countered:

“It doesn’t last though does it my little Kentucky Chicken?”

Silly brain sulked:

“No I suppose not”

Sensible brain gleefully pounced:

“Here’s what we’ll do instead. A 30 minute relaxing guided yoga nidra, a short walk to the shop to buy veggies for dinner and no snoozepaper. Then we’ll have a dip in your outside cold water tub”

Silly brain was sad:

“But I wanted all the yummy bad things”

Sensible brain concluded:

“Well suck it up Buttercup this is how it is”.

Sensible Brain for the Win

The healthy option I did take.

And whilst it didn’t give the absolute whacking, but very, short high of chocolate gorging and news-misery dipping…

It gave me a lovely calm, energy which is still with me 2 hours on as I sit tapping away on this ‘ear story and cooking carrot, broccoli, mash and chicken for dinner (yumbo!)

Although it is with much shame I admit I am using the gas oven not the Air Fryer.

(Forgive me father for I have sinned…)

A Lesson in Choices

~~Sometimes~~ Always we need to try to ignore our simple, easy, quick-fix, shake-n-bake in the bag brain, and take the more sensible approach.

It generally works out better.

If I can do it, then maybe you can too!

Have a great Sunday,

JFT Beach

PS Props to

sharon calvert

as it was her yoga nidra which I used above. It was a really lovely body scan in her inimitable northern English accent which hit well for me being as that’s my old geographical stomping ground too. Check it out as it’s a great thing.

Note I shared on Substack this week:

Article I Wrote on Substack this Week:

The Cost of Oversharing on Substack: A Personal Reflection on Boundaries and Storytelling - The ethical dilemmas about sharing about others on Substack, and how I approached it.

5 Health and Wellness Articles I Enjoyed on Substack This Week:

The Power of Thought: How to Transform Your Life - Automatic thoughts are everywhere and we need to stop them steering our entire ship!
Shelly Roberts
reminds us of a simple, but super effective, way to do this.
Self-Compassion 101: What is Self-Compassion? - This is really nicely written and actionable piece on self compassion from
Tara Cousineau, PhD
… a reminder of things I will do for myself ... but not always... and not consistently. Thanks for this gentle reminder.
Your Nervous System Holds the Blueprint - As we all know “the body keeps the score”. This is a great introduction to the world of emotional pain and how it gets rooted in our nervous system. A fascinating short read from
Alexandra Lais
What your thoughts reveal about your nervous system - A short dive into fight, flight, freeze responses which is a great thing to consider when we're dysregulated… and some ideas to get unstuck. Thanks
Francesca Phillips
3 Ways to Integrate Self Care into Your Every Day Without Adding to Your To-Do List - 3 super simple self care tips from
Simply Self Help
. #
So easy anyone can do them. I like this style of short actionable tips, I think you will too.