women's basketball team visited Augusta

Avoid: Refined foods such as breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.
Healthy eating tip 6: Enjoy healthy fats & avoid unhealthy fats

Good sources of healthy fat are needed to nourish your brain, heart and cells, as well as your hair, skin, and nails. Foods rich in certain omega-3 fats called EPA and DHA are particularly important and can reduce cardiovascular disease, improve your mood and help prevent dementia.
Add to your healthy diet:

* Monounsaturated fats, from plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, as well as avocados, nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans), and seeds (such as pumpkin, sesame).
* Polyunsaturated fats, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and some cold water fish oil supplements. Other sources of polyunsaturated fats are unheated sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and walnuts.

Reduce or eliminate from your diet:

* Saturated fats, found primarily in animal sources including red meat and whole milk dairy products.
* Trans fats, found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Healthy eating tip 7: Put protein in perspective

Sizzling SalmonProtein gives us the energy to get up and go—and keep going. Protein in food is broken down into the 20 amino acids that are the body’s basic building blocks for growth and energy, and essential for maintaining cells, tissues, and organs. A lack of protein in our diet can slow growth, reduce muscle mass, lower immunity, and weaken the heart and respiratory system. Protein is particularly important for children, whose bodies are growing and changing daily.
Here are some guidelines for including protein in your healthy diet:

Try different types of protein. Whether or not you are a vegetarian, trying different protein sources—such as beans, nuts, seeds, peas, tofu and soy products—will open up new options for healthy mealtimes.

* Beans: Black beans, navy beans, garbanzos, and lentils are good options.
* Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans are great choices.
* Soy products: Try tofu, soy milk, tempeh, and veggie burgers for a change.
* Avoid salted or sugary nuts and refried beans.

Downsize your portions of protein. Most people in the U.S. eat too much protein. Try to move away from protein being the center of your meal. Focus on equal servings of protein, whole grains, and vegetables.

Focus on quality sources of protein, like fresh fish, chicken or turkey, tofu, eggs, beans or nuts. When you are having meat, chicken, or turkey, buy meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics.

Healthy eating tip 8: Add calcium for strong bones

Add Calcium for Strong BonesCalcium is one of the key nutrients that your body needs in order to stay strong and healthy. It is an essential building block for lifelong bone health in both men and women, among many other important functions.

You and your bones will benefit from eating plenty of calcium-rich foods, limiting foods that deplete your body’s calcium stores, and getting your daily dose of magnesium and vitamins D and K—nutrients that help calcium do its job.

Recommended calcium levels are 1000 mg per day, 1200 mg if you are over 50 years old. Take a vitamin D and calcium supplement if you don’t get enough of these nutrients from your diet.
Good sources of calcium include:

* Dairy: Dairy products are rich in calcium in a form that is easily digested and absorbed by the body. Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.
* Vegetables and greens: Many vegetables, especially leafy green ones, are rich sources of calcium. Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.
* Beans: For another rich source of calcium, try black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.
Enjoying the beauty and soothing vibe of a houseplant is easy. Keeping it from drooping and dying takes a little more work.

-- Many people kill their houseplants with kindness -- the greenery succumbs to oversaturated roots.

"No. 1: Don't overwater," said Joan Coulat of Capital Nursery in Sacramento, Calif. "People water them until they're drowned."

Such species as sansevierias need water only every two to three weeks. Others get by with weekly watering.

The key is to feel the soil; water when it starts to feel dry. Ideally, put water in a saucer under the pot and let it wick upward.

-- The ideal "soil" is actually soil-less potting medium, a mix that stays moist but drains quickly. Don't use garden soil -- dirt won't work. Instead, use a mix of perlite, peat moss, sphagnum moss, orchid bark and charcoal. Also, don't put rocks or gravel at the bottom of the pot to improve drainage; that keeps the planting medium from drawing water up from the saucer.

-- Choose the right size pot for the plant. "When you put a little plant in a big pot, it rots," Coulat said. "The soil stays too wet and it dies."

When repotting, choose a container an inch or two larger in diameter than the previous container.

-- Keep the plant clean. Dust it regularly and occasionally give it a shower. Place the plant in the bathtub and gently rinse off its leaves with tepid water. That allows the leaves to work and stay healthy.

-- Plants need light to grow. Most houseplants thrive in bright indirect light, the kind found near an east-facing window. Under fluorescent light, plants do well with eight hours a day, such as in a typical office.

-- Fertilize your houseplant once or twice a month. Coulat recommends diluting houseplant food and feeding every time you water.

-- Some houseplants, particularly ferns and orchids, appreciate higher-than-normal humidity. Mist them occasionally with fresh water. Or make a humidity tray: Put gravel in a shallow dish. Fill the dish with water, keeping the water level just below the top of the stones. Place the houseplant (saucer and all) on top of the gravel.

-- Houseplants are beset by few pests except "mealybugs and mildew -- take care of them immediately," Coulat said. Use an indoor fungicide to fight mildew. Pick off damaged leaves. For mealybugs (which look like white scales), tab them with alcohol on a cotton swab or treat with a systemic spray recommended for indoor use. Gnats, another problem, may be a sign of too much moisture in the soil.

-- According to research, two to three large houseplants (in 10- to 12-inch containers) can clean the air in a 100- to 150-square-foot room, a typical bedroom or den. For maximum effect, place plants in your "breathing zone," within 6 to 8 square feet of where you normally sit or lie. But remember: They need light to survive.
USC Aiken women get healthy in rout
By Cam Huffman, Aiken Standard, S.C.

Feb. 03--When the USC Aiken women's basketball team visited Augusta State's Christenberry Fieldhouse last Monday, a flu bug that had swept through the Pacer roster made the game a little closer than most expected.

After eight days without a game, No. 16 USCA (18-4, 10-2 Peach Belt Conference) came into Wednesday's rematch at full health, and the visitors from across the Savannah River paid the price.

USCA scored 19 of the game's first 23 points to build an early cushion, and the Lady Jaguars (6-13, 0-11 PBC) were never really in the game. A focused effort kept a hungry group of USCA ladies on top from start to finish, and they completed the season sweep over their rival with a 97-43 victory -- the Pacers won 59-48 last week in Augusta.

"That was the longest break ever," said senior guard Nakia Pinkney, who scored 12 points and dished out three of a team record 32 assists for USCA. "We were all ready to get back. We all played hard and played a full 40 minutes."

Trying to keep the pressure on No. 1 Lander, which leads the PBC's East Division with an 11-0 conference record, USCA dominated every facet of the game as ASU lost its 11th straight under new head coach Nate Teymer. USCA won the rebounding battle 43-24, scored 48 points in the paint, compared to 10 for ASU, and got 41 points from its bench.

Please see WOMEN, page 4B

Much of the work was done on the defensive end, where USCA, which has given up just 54.4 points per game this season, forced 19 ASU turnovers and held the Lady Jags to just 30 percent shooting from the field.

"We were really prepared for them," said USCA head coach Mike Brandt. "We wanted to get some confidence back and a little swagger in our walk, and our mission was accomplished."

USCA found its scoring from a variety of sources, getting points both inside the lane and behind the 3-point arc. Deandra Schirmer played much bigger than her 5-foot-8 frame, dominating the paint to score 13 points and grab nine rebounds.

"Most of my points came off of assists," said Schirmer. "Augusta State was running the zone, and my teammates did a good job of looking inside and finding me when they left me open."

Up 49-19 at halftime, the Pacers didn't let up after the break. ASU scored first on a Brooke McCants 3-pointer and kept pace for a few minutes before a Nakia Pinkney 3-ball started another USCA run. The Pacers scored the next seven points, and when Kayla Harris connected on a layup with a little more than 15 minutes to play, accounting for two of her 18 points, USCA led 60-25.

"I was proud of our players," said Brandt of the second-half effort. "They really stayed focused throughout the game, and our bench did a good job. We got off to a good start in the second half and gave them no indication that they would have a chance to come back."

USCA finished with five players in double figures, led by Harris and Schirmer. Hannah DeGraffinreed also scored 13 points, while Mia Antoine had 12, matching Harris' total.

The Pacers came up just four points short of matching their largest margin of victory in the school's history, and they nearly scored 100 points for the first time since 2000.

The century mark was clearly on the minds of the USCA players down the stretch. Up 97-42 after a Brittany Bowen 3-pointer with 1:03 left to play, the Lady Pacers put forth an all-out effort for the final three points. Lindsay Sundberg launched a long 3-pointer that came up short with 35 seconds left to play, and with the fans chanting "100," Tiffani Moody, who scored seven points to go along with 14 rebounds, clanged a long range jumper off the rim to fall short.

"I'm a little disappointed," said Pinkney of the missed milestone. "But we played hard, and that's what I'm excited about."

Augusta State will get another shot at finding its first league win Saturday when it hosts Lander at 1:30 p.m. USCA has four days off before Flagler visits the Convocation Center Monday at 5:30 p.m.

Schirmer promises that same focus against another one of the East's bottom teams.

"It's very important for our starting five to set the bar," said the senior forward. "If we can get it starter, we have people who can come off the bench and keep it going."
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