We know it's best not to miss breakfast. It's the meal that gives us energy for the day, increases metabolism, and helps our bodies burn fat faster and better. Since breakfast comes at the time of day when most of us are rushing and hustling to get going for the day, it becomes pretty easy to skip this power meal. In the spirit of putting breakfast back into your schedule, here are some simple Canyon Ranch ideas for getting the boost you need during the start of your busy days.

• Cottage cheese and fruit. Grab some low-fat cottage cheese and top with fresh fruit. Add your favorite nuts and seeds and some ground flax seed for a nutty flavor and a burst of omega-3. Add flax to any of the following ideas too.
  
• Scrambled egg or tofu with spinach and scallion in a whole wheat wrap.
• Whole grain bread with one tablespoon nut butter.
• Plain yogurt with fruit, cinnamon, or berries.
• Hot oat bran cereal or oatmeal (not instant) with cinnamon, dried figs or other fruit, and nuts.
  
• Smoked salmon with tomato and onion on whole grain bread.

If any of this sounds like too much to accomplish in the early morning, try preparing some items ahead of time so all you have to do is grab and go.

Thanks Canyon Ranch for the breakfast basics.

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.

Do you have less energy than you did before cancer? Do you sometimes crash in the middle of the afternoon? If you answered Yes to these questions and wonder why your energy is zapped, you may want to consider something completely outside the realm of cancer. Like your diet.

Canyon Ranch nutritionists say lack of energy is not always related to diet. It can also stem from lack of sleep and exercise, depression, anxiety, low-grade infection, medication, reaction to alcohol, and caffeine withdrawal or dependence. But diet surely plays a part, and sometimes a very large part. So in the interest of energetic and healthy living, you might want to give some thought to these energy-building diet tips.

Start the day with a healthy breakfast. When kids don't eat breakfast, they don't think as clearly and don't do homework as well as their well-nourished classmates. Adults are no different. Everyone needs a jump-start in the morning. It's good for metabolism and blood sugar. It's good for the brain.

AOL Diet & Fitness is featuring Prevention's 100 Smartest Diet Tips Ever, and it is by far one of the most creative and common sense approaches to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight -- and in hedging your bets with good nutrition against being diagnosed with diseases like cancer. The tips are from registered dietitians in private practice and respected in their field as heads of specialty practice groups for the American Dietetic Association.

Whether you are someone who can only make a small practical change -- or -- looking for ideas on how to get more veggie-goodness into your day -- or -- easy tricks to cut calories -- or -- healthy low-cal dinner ideas if you don't feel like cooking -- there is something for everyone in the list of 100 smartest diet tips ever.

Some of the creative tips include:

• Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.
• Keep a food journal. The experts swear this really works wonders.
• Mix three different cans of beans and some diet Italian dressing. Eat this three-bean salad all week.
• Dance to music with your family in your home.
  

Some common sense tips include:

• Fat-free isn't always your best bet. The experts explain why.
• Skipping breakfast will leave you tired and craving naughty foods by midmorning. They give you a quick nutritious breakfast recipe.
• Make vegetables more attractive by avoiding mushy limp vegetables in the refrigerator crisper drawer with ready-to-go bags of frozen vegetables.
• Exercise. It curbs your appetite.
• Drink water frequently. They say it is not how much water you drink but how often. Dehydration slows your metabolism.
  

The last 15 tips are myth busters that take you from fiction to fact and the pitfalls to avoid when it comes to getting the most in diet health benefit. To find out more, go to 100 Smartest Diet Tips Ever for the complete list.

Every parent knows the pitfalls of Saturday morning cartoons and the commercials plastered between cartoons. As a parent, you can count on your children coming and extolling the latest greatest breakfast cereal or toy and adamant about getting it. With my children, I counter with lessons about Madison Avenue advertising and the massive amounts of money they sink into finding out what will appeal to the consumer and how to appeal to them. For children, advertisers sell fun.

Researchers took a good hard look at the advertisements for oncology drugs appearing in cancer magazines and found them to be a bit misleading. It does make sense if you are trying to sell a product that you would emphasis the benefits and minimize the less attractive aspects of the product when advertising them, but these products are drugs and not toys or breakfast cereals, and the impression can lead the consumer to believing something that simply isn't true. For cancer patients, advertisers sell hope.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute first noticed that the benefits of the drug appear in large text while the side effects and risks appear in smaller text. According to the researchers conclusion, the ads are designed in such a way that the consumer might not appreciate the dangers of the drug. There was a time when prescription drug makers did not advertise, in the same way lawyers did not advertise. Of course, we are so bombarded each day with prescription drug advertisements that I doubt many of us can remember when advertising directly to the consumer wasn't the norm. I am certain doctors everywhere are seeing patients each and every day come in and request a drug because they saw it advertised by the drug company wanting to sell more of the drug. In this study, the magazines that were analyzed were CURE, Coping with Cancer and MAMM.

Stumped for creative ways to get more daily servings of nutrition-rich cancer prevention fruits and vegetables into your diet? In a hurry? On the go? Just don't have time. Here are some suggestions in time-saving quick tips for eating healthy. 

• Try a fruit smoothie for breakfast.
• Top breakfast cereal with flax seed and fresh fruit.
• Roll your sandwich filling in a cabbage leaf instead of using bread.

When you bake those skinless boneless organic chicken breasts for dinner, bake a few extra. Slice the extra chicken breasts and refrigerate. For a quick lunch salad, add a small serving of sliced chicken pieces to a bowl of fresh organic baby spinach leaves and a handful of walnut halves, sprinkle with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. It takes me less than three minutes to make this salad.

I am not a huge sports fan. But just about everyone in my family is. So I have absorbed quite a bit of knowledge about sports -- and primarily college basketball -- because all sorts of facts and stats and stories float around at family gatherings. I don't pay much attention but I guess it soaks in anyway -- because there have been times when I have rattled off information that shocks even the most fanatical of family members.

But something about basketball has actually peaked my interest and has caused me to look and listen a bit more closely. It's called Coaches vs. Cancer®. Coaches vs. Cancer teams up the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches in the fight against cancer. Basketball coaches from all over participate in a variety of events and activities and fundraisers -- and they hope to emerge victorious over a disease that is claiming too many lives. Many hours and much effort go into the game plan for beating cancer.  There is the Basket Ball -- a black tie affair that features a night of dancing, dinner, celebrity appearances and an auction -- and golf tournaments and tip-off breakfasts and even regular season games where funds are raised to benefit the cause. The program has raised more than $25 million since it first started in 1993 and the match-up is still going strong. Now this is something I can cheer about.

Paul Gleason, who played the go-to bad guy in Trading Places and the angry high school principal in The Breakfast Club, has died. He was 67.  Gleason died at a local hospital Saturday of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos, said his wife, Susan Gleason.

"Whenever you were with Paul, there was never a dull moment," his wife said. "He was awesome."

A native of Miami, Gleason was an avid athlete. Before becoming an actor, he played Triple-A minor league baseball for a handful of clubs in the late 1950s. Gleason honed his acting skills with his mentor Lee Strasberg, whom he studied with at the Actors Studio beginning in the mid-1960s, family members said.  Through his career, Gleason appeared in over 60 movies that included Die Hard, Johnny Be Good, and National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Most recently, Gleason made a handful of television appearances in hit shows such as Friends and Seinfeld. Gleason's passions went beyond acting. He had recently published a book of poetry. 

"He was an athlete, an actor and a poet," said his daughter, Shannon Gleason-Grossman. "He gave me and my sister a love that is beyond description that will be with us and keep us strong for the rest of our lives."

Gleason was survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. Funeral plans were pending.