I promised two weeks ago when I wrote Sunday Seven: Seven ways to fine-tune your health that I'd be back to offer seven more grand ideas for optimizing your physical and emotional well-being. Here I am, with a mini-list of suggestions I gathered a while back from a newspaper article. If you don't already practice these strategies, then why not give them a try.

Eat breakfast

It's the most important meal of the day -- really. A breakfast high in complex carbohydrates and protein creates energy. Energy kick-starts metabolism and helps our bodies burn fat. We all know what fat does. It weighs us down and contributes to all kinds of health problems.

Get your sleep

Sleep restores our bodies. Sleep-deprived folks secrete more leptin, a protein hormone that increases appetite. Larger appetites increase food consumption. Increased food consumption spikes the risk of obesity. And so on. You know the drill.

Mixing antioxidants and sun exposure can be dangerous to your health. A new study, published in the September issue of The Journal of Nutrition, details a French study revealing that antioxidant supplements won't protect women against skin cancer -- and they may actually increase the risk of developing the disease.

A team of French researchers assigned almost 7,900 women and more than 5,100 men to take either an oral daily capsule of antioxidant or a placebo that looked the same. The antioxidants included low levels of vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, selenium, and zinc. What they found: the incidence of all skin cancers was higher in the group of women who took the antioxidant.

While there is one limitation to this study -- it did not take into account sunscreen use and its effect on the use of both antioxidants and the sun -- it does serve as another reason to stay out of the sun.

The FDA proposed a new regulation on Thursday governing retail sunscreens, including adding a new label warning consumers about the risk of skin cancer linked to sun exposure.

The FDA proposed testing and rating a product's level of ultraviolet A protection. UVA is responsible for tanning and UVB for burning. The FDA hopes to clarify that both UVA and UVA are dangerous. Currently, the sun protection factor or SPF rating, only indicates the level of UVB protection.

The proposed warning would remind consumers that sunscreen use should not be used as a reason to extend time spent in the sun and that UV exposure increases the risk of skin cancer, premature skin aging and other damage. The new UVA rating system would use a scale of one to four stars, with four stars representing the highest UVA protection available in an over-the-counter sunscreen.

Anything that can help us increase our understanding of sun and skin health is a step in the right direction.

How much do you know about protecting your skin? How often should you apply it? How much should you use to cover your whole body? What kind of rays does sunscreen protect against? UVA? UVB? Both? If these questions have left you scratching your head, check out this quiz from Fitsugar.

Here are some quick sunscreen facts:

• When you don't use enough sunscreen, the sunscreen you did apply is not nearly as effective.
  
• UVA Rays can pass through windows and contribute to aging of the skin. UVB rays cannot pass through windows and can cause skin cancer.
• SPF 15 blocks out 93% of harmful rays. Impressive, huh?

Vitamin D is one of the latest, greatest hot cancer topics. Why? Well, it seems many of us women are vitamin D deficient. Such a deficiency might be linked to breast cancer risk so it's in our best interest to make sure we get a healthy dose of this vitamin. It's not as easy as adhering to the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) guidelines, though. Follow them and you'll still come up short -- the Food and Nutrition Board, responsible for setting the DRIs, have not yet updated guidelines in light of cancer concerns. So what's a girl to do?

For starters, we need to understand that for overall health benefits, 1,000 IU (International Units) per day are necessary. The outdated DRI recommends 200 to 600 IU. This is based on preventing only bone diseases like rickets. Second, keep in mind it's safe to take up to 10,000 IU each day. Third, up your intake of this important vitamin. Here's how:

Fatty fish is the best source of vitamin D. But watch out for high mercury levels. Fortified milk is also good. It has 100 IU of vitamin D per eight-ounce serving, but cow's milk been linked to breast cancer risk as well.

A recent sunscreen ad by Neutrogena Sunscreen features a young woman with the caption, 'My sister accidentally killed herself. She died of Skin Cancer'. The message is clear: Those who die of the disease only have themselves to blame.

But that statement is generating some controversy from Skin Cancer specialists for a number of reasons, according to this article. Firstly, despite everything we hear about covering up, it's not a proven fact that sunscreen prevents melanoma, but it is thought that it protects against less deadly forms of skin cancer. Secondly, tests show that people who've had more sun exposure have a better chance of survival against melanoma than those who stayed out of the sun. And while the ad is meant to evoke fear by claiming that skin cancer is the most common cancer, it doesn't mention that skin cancer only accounts for 2% of cancer deaths and almost all of these are from Melanoma.

Still, I think protecting yourself against the sun is ultimately important, and that message is clear from the ad.

I'm a little tired of reading and writing about sunscreen. Maybe it's not the actual reading and writing that has me worn out. Maybe it's the realization that I keep reading and writing about sunscreen yet the information is just not sinking in with the masses of sun-hungry people out there -- according to the EPA, there has been a staggering 1,800 percent increase in malignant melanoma cases since 1930. Recent figures show a shocking rise in skin cancers among those in their 20s and 30s.

The experts at Canyon Ranch are weighing in on sunscreen. So here I go again, with some more about this tiring topic.

• Sunscreen contains unique chemical components which absorb ultraviolet (UV) light. When applied to the skin, the chemical molecules form an invisible, protective layer that repels the penetrating UV rays. It also helps prevent premature aging and pre-cancerous growths.

I keep thinking about my ongoing negative relationship with the sun, how it burns me time and time again, how I keep trying to fine-tune my approach to dealing with this deadly force. Today, I have arrived at two new thoughts.

1. There was a time when I wanted a tan. I'd accept a burn even, in hopes it would turn to the slightest shade of brown on my pasty white skin. I would search high and low for the sun. I would drive in its direction, bask in its glory, give hours of my day to this crazy pursuit. Somehow, though, achieving a tan -- or burn -- wasn't easy. Sometimes, I'd see some color appear; sometimes my efforts seemed for nothing. It took work, effort, endless amounts of time and while my ventures in sunbathing did sometimes prove successful, there were many times I was left with, well, pasty white skin.

Fast forward to now. Not only do I seek shelter from the sun, but I use sunscreen, sit under umbrellas, and cover up whenever I can. Still, I get burned. It seems if I look in the direction of the sun, with my sunscreen-coated face, it will get burned. Long ago, my bare face only occasionally absorbed the sun. Why the change? Why when I worked not at all at protecting myself was it so hard to attract a golden glow? Why now do I protect myself in all ways possible and still sizzle? I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the chemotherapy drugs that poisoned my body for so long. A dermatologist once told me about a phenomenon called UV recall. The sun and the drugs can react, long after treatment has concluded, and can cause skin reactions. Maybe this is what's happening to me. Just in case, this gives me all the more reason to avoid all contact with the sun.

I'm sad, worried, and frustrated because of what happened to me at the beach this past weekend. I got burned. Really burned.

I thought I did everything right. I applied sunscreen, even had my husband coat my back, shoulders, and hard-to-reach spots with the powerful lotion intended to block the sun's most damaging rays. I sat underneath an umbrella while watching my boys, their own pale bodies slathered in a baby sunblock potion, as they jumped, ran, and bounced in the waves. I reapplied my sunscreen after a short stint in the pool and a stroll on the sand left my skin feeling tender. Still, I sizzled. My back is red, the skin underneath my suit straps white as can be in contrast to the bright color it borders, My chest is red and sore and itchy with bumps.

I feel sick, like I've exponentially upped my risk for skin cancer. As a cancer survivor, I feel particularly vulnerable. I not only fear a return of breast cancer, you see. I fear other cancers too. My ultra white skin already puts me at risk for sun damage. My past forays into sunbathing don't help. What happened this weekend, I'm afraid, makes things worse.

Who knows which pieces of cancer information floating around out there are actually true? I don't. Do cell phones cause cancer? Some say yes, some say no, I say I'm confused! Luckily, I happened upon this Discovery Health article that highlights a variety of myths and then offers the lowdown on each one. Here are seven of them:

Myth #1. There is currently a cure for cancer, but the medical industry won't tell the public about it because they make too much money treating cancer patients.

Chalk this up to urban legend. And consider this: doctors, laboratory scientists, and their families and friends die of cancer at the same rate as everyone else in the United States. How about this: medical breakthroughs happen all the time and are quickly applied. Think about antibiotics and vaccines -- like the polio vaccine -- that have transformed health care. How about this? Not too long ago, less than one in 10 kids with leukemia survived 10 years. Now, the cure rate is nearly 80 percent. Seems like progress to me.

The gals over at the Beauty Brains addressed the following question a few days ago and I thought I would share:

Q:I've been using Aveeno Baby Sunblock Lotion on my 2 year old but I read that it contains dioxane which causes cancer. Should I switch sunscreens?.

I think this is an excellent question, and one I would have never thought of because isn't sunscreen supposed to be the holy grail of cancer prevention? But as the girls point out, Dioxane is thought to be cancer-causing ... at high levels. And since the level in sunscreen is so low, and since it evaporates very quickly, the amount that comes in contact with your (or your baby's) skin is minimal, and therefore not problematic. According to the FDA, at least. What do you think?

When it comes to sunscreen basics there still seems to be some confusion over when and how much to apply to the arms and shoulders of our kids. Some parents believe that too much will be detrimental or that there are time when no protection is needed at all. Below is a quick rundown that reveals the truth about basic sun protection.

• All sun expsosure, even if it produces a tan, is harmful for the skin. Any sort of tan damages the skin. Over time the more sun exposure a child receives, the more likely he/she will develop skin cancer.
• An umbrella does not eliminate the need for further sun protection such as sunblock. The sun's rays are reflected by the ground and will cause a burn despite the fact that you are sitting in the shade. Shade is still a great form of protection, just don't forget to lather up with sunscreen.
• UVA rays do penetrate glass windows. This makes riding in the car a situation where sunscreen is still needed, especially for youn, delicate skin.
• Most adults and children get enough Vitamin D from sources other than the sun. So the myth that too much sunscreen inhibits the body's ability to produce Vitamin D is not applicable.
• Sunscreen is needed even when it is cloudy outside. Up to 80% of the sun's UV rays are able to penetrate cloud cover.
• Parents need to lather on the sunscreen just as much as kids. Grownups will still receive up to 75% of their sun exposure after they reach adulthood. It is imperative to cover up our children and then continue to protect ourselves for a life of healthy skin.

The above are just some basic facts about sun protection, but when followed the likelihood for serious skin cacncer problems can be reduced or eliminated.

When I describe the cancerous lump I found in my breast almost three Novembers ago, I explain that it felt like a hard, frozen green pea. The port used for chemotherapy infusions and sewn under the skin near my collarbone? It looked like a bottle cap popping up for all to see. My kids called it a stone. I had to numb my skin prior to treatments -- the needle inserted into the center of the port was just too big and painful. I slathered on my numbing lotion prior to each dose of drugs. Imagine the size of a quarter. I used twice this much. I was wimpy.

There's something about visual descriptions that help us remember some of the more important things in life. Here's a good one:

According to Jeffrey Dover, MD and associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, we must not skimp when we apply sunscreen. How do we know if we are cutting ourselves short? We should be using a shot-glass full of sun protection to cover our bodies. Anything less is not enough.

The American Academy of Dermatology is warning athletes that they are at higher risk of developing skin cancer.

According to Brian B. Adams, MD, MPH, FAAD, and chairperson of the AAD's Sports Committee, "Outdoor athletes are at a particularly higher risk because perspiration on the skin lowers the minimal erythema dose, the lowest ultraviolet (UV) light exposure needed to turn the skin barely pink."

The AAD encourages all athletes to "Be Sun Smart" with the following tips: wearing sunscreen and reapplying every two hours, wearing protective clothing, seeking shade if possible between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., getting skin checkups, remembering to protect your children against the sun, getting vitamin D through your diet and supplements instead of the sun and avoiding the use of tanning beds.

When I slather sunscreen on the shoulders of my fair haired toddler, I trust that the claims on the bottle are accurate. I believe that by frequently covering is pale skin in cream, his epidermis will be safe, healthy and cancer free. It turns out this might not be the case.

A recent study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington-based nonprofit, found that many of the most popular sunscreens do not provide any protection against harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays and break down too fast in the sun. Most consumers rely on the SPF number when buying a sunscreen, the higher the number the better the protection. But what continues to slip through the cracks is the sun block's ability to protect from UVA rays. The UVA rays damage skin without leaving a burn and are the main cause of skin cancer.

There is hope on the horizon. The FDA is addressing the UVA issues and is hoping to have some standards in place by the end of the summer. This is good news to those of us who heavily rely on sunblock as a protective effort to sun damage.