Christina Applegate hits the beach with husband and daughter during Mexico getaway

On Thursday they enjoyed a family kayaking expedition.
And on Friday, Christina Applegate, husband Martyn LeNoble and their little girl Sadie relaxed on the beach as they continued their holiday in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
The 42-year-old actress wore a pink patterned cover-up which she took off to reveal a spaghetti-string top over a black stretchy sundress.

The former Married... With Children star pulled her blonde hair up into bun as she went into the water with her three-year-old.
She watched as Martyn, 45, carried Sadie in the ocean where he appeared to be teaching his darling daughter how to swim.
The Dutch bassist for rock band Porno For Pyros wore black plaid swim shorts as he played with his little girl, who held onto his shoulders, in the surf.

The little blonde looked adorable in a pink one piece swimsuit with Disney princesses on the front and frills over the shoulders and around the hips.
The day before, all three donned life jackets and jumped into a tandem kayak as Christina and Martyn paddled with Sadie wedged safely between them.
Christina and Martyn tied the knot in February 2013 after dating for four years.

The Emmy-winner and frequent guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance is taking some time off after completing voice work on 20th Century Fox's animated film Book Of Life.
The film is about Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, who embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears.
Due out in the U.S. on October 17 and the U.K. a week later, it stars Diego Luna as Manolo plus Zoe Saldana and Channing Tatum.

Christina Applegate On Breast Cancer and Raising Awarenesses

How do you connect a healthy lifestyle, diet, and exercise with cancer prevention?

There are a lot of factors as to how cancer happens. I have talked to women who do yoga, who are vegan, who have never smoked and/or never drank a day in their life but they have Stage IV breast cancer. So you do what you can to be as healthy as you can if you know you're high-risk because yes, all those things can factor into that. But sometimes it's just a fluke. Sometimes it's just some strange inflammation in the body. One cell—one cell—goes cuckoo and everything changes. So yes, we should always take care of ourselves because there are many other things that we should be [aware of]: diabetes, obesity, heart disease. There is a myriad of reasons why we should be taking care of ourselves. The mystery of that with talking to women who are the healthiest people on the planet and having it is just like, 'What? I have no family history.' It can happen to anybody, sadly.

What other factors do you think we need to keep on our radar?

I think that the amount of women getting breast cancer has grown so exponentially. It's growing at such a rapid pace and it's getting into women who are much younger because of the environment and what is in our food. It's not the cancer getting stronger; it's that we are being poisoned. We have to really think about where our food is coming from. The hormones being put in the stuff we eat—all of that contributes to cancer. We are a purely organic house. I know it's expensive, but find a way. Find a way to not get those things into your system. That's why we're seeing so many cases, and you can talk to any oncologist and he or she will absolutely agree. That's my PSA for today!

How has your outlook on your cancer, life, and body changed post-diagnosis, since your double mastectomy?

Oh, boy. I remember three weeks after I had my mastectomy—I think I was on 'Oprah' or something—and I was really, really being a cheerleader to myself at that time, you know? I said, 'Hey, I'm going to have the perkiest boobs in the nursing room!' or something to that effect. And then you start to live with those boobs, and it's your reminder every day that this thing happened to you, unfortunately, and it's a part of your body that's changed drastically, and embracing that is difficult sometimes. And my take on it now, years later, is to be more honest with people. It's incredible what's happened in the last six years since I've had it; what they've been able to do surgery-wise. My situation was very different. Things have definitely changed. I've seen [breast implants] on some girls recently where I'm like, 'Those are the best looking boobs I've seen. That's incredible.' So it can be a positive thing, if it has to be. You can get better boobs than you had before, if you so choose. I don't know if that was really your question. About my own body in general, so many things have changed. I had a baby so everything changes after that. I'm over 40. Everything changes after that. I'm getting used to the new me, my new body. The one thing I can say to moms out there is: Beware of the Toddler 10. Beware. Anyone who has a toddler understands, it's called finishing off your kid's plate and then having your own meal. The Toddler 10, we call it in my group of mommies.

Rivals the Freshman 15 for sure.

Exactly.

How has RAW evolved since you first started the organization, now that you have a bit more perspective?

I still believe in the MRI and I know that we are going to expand eventually. We are a foundation based on donation alone. We get these grants here and there which are incredibly helpful. We are non-profit so everything we do comes from people outside giving to us. Every single dollar goes into paying for these MRIs which can be upwards of $2,000 for some of these women. So we are still trying to stay afloat in that sense. I know that with companies like ASICS and some other ventures that are coming up soon, I think we'll be able to expand to really taking a woman through the journey. We want to expand to paying for BRCA gene testing, which is very expensive. That can be $3,000-$5,000 to get genetic testing done. We want to have a support system. We want to have a nutritional site. We want to have a medication site, alternative medicine. We want to really expand upon what we're doing, and that is really the future for what RAW is going to be: a one-stop show for anyone who has to go through this or anyone who knows they're high-risk. We have a niche there.

Related: Estée Lauder Is Encouraging Breast Cancer Survivors to Share Their Stories With an Inspiring New Film

Between being educated about getting screened and the financial aspect of it all, which do you think is the bigger obstacle?

Financially, it is difficult. These tests, like I said, an MRI—now some insurance companies do cover that, but most don't. And there are other ways out there that can actually detect it earlier than a mammogram can. With a mammogram—as great as they are, and they do save a lot of lives—if you have very dense breasts, it really can't see if there is something in there. There are other tests, including an MRI, that can really go into the tissue and really see cell formation and hot spots, and that's what you want to see before it becomes a tumor. If you can find it at the DCIS stage, your chances of survival are incredible. That's why we're still kind of holding on to this. That's how passionate I am about this test and what we're doing. So financially, I think it's an issue, certainly. If you get cancer and you have to deal with that, look at the stress you're putting on yourself [in that alone]. Stress is the biggest factor of it all, really.

I'm sure you've encountered so many women with their own personal stories through RAW. What has been the most rewarding aspect of the organization for you?

Seeing those numbers of how many women are applying and how many women we're supporting every year who keep coming back, who keep getting their tests: That's what makes me happy. It's about staying ahead of the game, if you know you're high-risk. Because of the fact that we are so small, we can't give MRIs out to everybody—and not everybody should be getting them. But if you know you're high-risk, if you have it in your family, if, say, you were adopted…. There are certain factors that have a higher risk platform, and that's what we want to [focus on]. When I see that hundreds and hundreds of women are a part of our program, it's wonderful to me. I'm rewarded on the scale of just what has happened and how I can be a support system. [During my cancer,] I had a circle of women who I had never met before who I talked with on the phone almost every day, when I was going through this. My doctors gave me their numbers. To pay it forward, which is what I do now. I get calls every couple of weeks from someone saying, 'Hey, my friend just got diagnosed. Can you please talk to her?' It's not about me, but being able to talk a woman down off a cliff and be able to talk her through the process. It's a really wonderful feeling.

Christina Applegate: Tips for Insomniacs

Christina Applegate Reveals Longtime Struggle With Insomnia: I Sleep 'Maybe Three Hours a Night'

Christina Applegate is opening up about her battle with insomnia – a sleep disorder she says has taken a toll on her "health, personality and well-being."

"It's something a lot of people don't talk about," Applegate, 45. "Millions and millions of people aren't sleeping… It affects your spiritual self, emotional self and physical self."

The actress, who averages only three hours of sleep a night, says her insomnia – which she developed around 20 years ago – changed when she became a mother to 5-year-old Sadie Grace in 2011.

"In my 20s and 30s, I used to never be able to fall asleep and would just stay up all night long," the star of the upcoming comedy Bad Moms says. "But when my daughter was born, I got into a three-hour feeding cycle. Now she sleeps 10 hours a night, but my body still wakes up every few hours. I'll also be up from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. and finally fall asleep. And then [Sadie Grace] comes in and is ready for breakfast!"






Why So Awake, an online resource for insomniacs, cites a person's behavior and neurotransmitter activity in the sleep and wake systems as the main causes of the disorder.

To help ensure a good night's sleep, Applegate follows a handful of personal rules she has laid out for herself.

1. Keep it Cold
"It should be about 60 to 68 degrees, it should never be any warmer than that," says Applegate. "You've got covers, if you get cold, put some socks on!"

2. Blue Light OFF
"There's something in the blue light from the smart phone and from the television that stimulate your awake brain, which at night time is supposed to be the asleep brain. You should not have blue light on an hour before sleep, which I know is really hard for people because we check our phones constantly," explains the actress.

3. Use a straw!
The mother of one says that, for her, a no-slurping policy is a must.

"There are so many factors, habitual things, that contribute to not sleeping. If you have water next to your bed and you have a partner, make sure to have straws, because they cut down the noise. My husband would have water in the middle of the night and that would wake me up with that gulping sound," Applegate says of hubby Martyn LeNoble.

4. Sleep Timer is Your Friend
"If you have to fall asleep to television, make sure you set your timer for it to shut off. It's not good for your subconscious to listen to the nonsense on late-night news," she says.

5. Sorry, No Pets Allowed
Applegate admits this rule isn't her favorite.

"We have pets – we love our pets – but we had to start not having them in the bedroom because we couldn't sleep," she says. "They would constantly roll around and move. It was the saddest thing."

For more than 20 years, actress Christina Applegate has kept audiences laughing.

"It doesn't feel the same, and it's hard to carry your purse," Christina Applegate says. "I cry at least once a day."

"It doesn't feel the same, and it's hard to carry your purse," Christina Applegate says. "I cry at least once a day."

During her teenage years, she lit up the small screen as Kelly Bundy on the hit sitcom "Married with Children." After 11 hilarious seasons, Christina's career branched out to the big screen and Broadway.

In 2007, Christina landed the starring role on "Samantha Who?" an acclaimed comedy series. After receiving Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her performance, it seemed that nothing could stop Christina's triumphant return to TV.

Then, in April 2008, shocking news silenced the laughter. At 36 years old, Christina was diagnosed with breast cancer. At first, Christina says she lived quietly with the disease. "It's hard to live quietly," she says. "I went through five weeks of work without telling anyone that this was going on in my life."

Now, Christina is going public with her personal battle to raise awareness among young women who may not think they're at risk.

As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, Christina says she's been vigilant about getting regular mammograms since she was 30 years old. In 2007, doctors recommended extra precautions.

"My doctor said that the mammograms weren't enough for me because of the denseness of my breasts," she says. "He suggested that I get an MRI."

Christina went in for her first MRI screening, which produced disturbing results. "They found some funky things going on [in one breast]," she says. Doctors told her they needed to perform a biopsy. Then, the excruciating waiting game began.

Christina continued to work and promote her sitcom, but the impending results were never far from her mind. A week later she says she got the phone call every woman dreads. "[The doctor said], 'It came back positive,'" she says. "Right now I'm sitting here shaking remembering that moment."

Doctors explained that the cancer was only in her left breast, and thankfully, they caught it at an early stage. Christina says she held back her tears and immediately went into survival mode.

The day after her diagnosis, Christina says she went in to see an oncologist and a surgeon. "I'm a Sagittarius," she says. "We need things done now. So, for me, I had to get in now, and I wanted to have my surgery now."

Within a week, Christina had her first lumpectomy. Doctors also did a biopsy of her lymph nodes to make sure the cancer hadn't spread. Since the cancer was caught early on, Christina was told she'd need six weeks of radiation instead of chemotherapy.

Then, she received more life-changing news. A test for the BRCA gene -- also known as the "breast cancer gene" -- came back positive. Oprah.com: Should you get tested for the gene?

"That sort of changed everything for me," she says. "Radiation was something temporary, and it wasn't addressing the issue of this coming back or the chance of it coming back in my left breast. I sort of had to kind of weigh all my options at that point."

Christina was given two options... go forward with the radiation treatments and continue testing for the rest of her life or have both breasts removed.

Christina made the dramatic decision to have a bilateral mastectomy. "It came on really fast. It was one of those things that I woke up and it felt so right," she says. "It just seemed like, 'I don't want to have to deal with this again. I don't want to keep putting that stuff in my body. I just want to be done with this.' & I was just going to let them go."

Before she went in for her surgery, Christina says she staged her first -- and last -- nude photo shoot. "I made sure that I have close-up photographs of them from every angle so I can kind of remember them," she says.

Christina's tears finally spilled over the day she met her surgeon. "I met with my doctor, and I told him that was my decision," she says. "He brought the surgeon in, and it was like it was the floodgates just opened up and I lost it." Oprah.com: Going through a double mastectomy surgery

In July 2008, Christina went through with the surgery, which has left physical and emotional scars. "It can be very painful," she says. "It's also a part of you that's gone, so you go through a grieving process and a mourning process."

Before she went under the knife, Christina says the only mastectomy she'd ever seen was the one her mother received. "[Her surgery] was in the '70s, and they didn't do a very good job back then," she says. "So in my own mind I'm thinking, 'My God, I'm going to be butchered, and it's going to be horrible. I'm never going to love that part of me again.' & But I did a lot of research, and they can make some pretty boobies."

Currently, Christina says she has saline expanders in her body, which will make way for the new implants. Though she's proud of her proactive decision, she says she's reminded of her loss every day.

"It doesn't feel the same, and it's hard to carry your purse," she says. "I cry at least once a day about it because it's hard to overlook it when you're standing there in the mirror. When you look down, it's the first thing you see... So you're reminded constantly of this thing -- this cancer thing that you had."

On the bright side, Christina says she won't have to wear a bra ever again. She also feels victorious in the fight against breast cancer. "I have taken a very progressive stance in the rest of my life," she says. "For that, I'm really grateful."

Days after her diagnosis, Christina says she reached out to family and friends, including Melissa Etheridge, a Grammy winner and breast cancer survivor. Melissa shared the lessons she learned during the fight for her own life.

"The first thing she said to me is: 'Christina, this is a blessing that's happened to you in your life. Right now, you get to start over, and right now you get to change everything -- the way that you deal with things in life, the way that you react to things. Fear can hurt you. Stress can hurt you. This is the time that you have this opportunity to change the way you eat... everything you do,'" Christina says.

Christina now looks at her health scare as a blessing. "I am a 36-year-old person with breast cancer, and not many people know that that happens to women my age or women in their 20s," she says. "This is my opportunity now to go out and fight as hard as I can for early detection."

As she's learned, early detection may not come from a mammogram. Christina says she will fight for women to have access to MRIs and genetic testing, which many insurance companies won't pay for.

Christina says her health scare has shifted her priorities completely. "[There's] this need and this desire to make every single day count," she says. "I used to say... 'Don't sweat the small stuff -- not even the big stuff.' At the end of the day, none of it matters but your own joy, your own spiritual journey that you go on, God, your loved ones, your friends, your animals. These are the things you've got to cherish and love and embrace."