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WHEN "KEVIN" WAS 8 YEARS OLD, he was not a joiner. He was one of those students who would stand on the sidelines in gym class, needing to be coaxed to try an activity. Children like Kevin are too heavy or weak to do a trunk lift, a test in which a child lies prone and uses back muscles to lift up the front of the body. Unable to keep up with others, they may avoid games of soccer and tag at recess. In fact, today many children stand around playing hand-held computer games, Martin says, where in the past there would have been "packs of running, jumping and screaming children."

In January 2004, Kevin's school was one of 20 in New Hampshire to apply for a grant, and, with Martin's training and supervision, start a three-pronged program to increase students' daily activity levels, teach them about nutrition and improve the nutritional quality of foods served in school. Kevin's gym teacher used the Physical Best program as a basis for her classes, rotating groups of students through activities designed to keep them moving while developing strength, flexibility and aerobic capacity. Once a month, Kevin's class received a nutrition lesson tied into another academic subject, such as math. At the same time, the school lunch team made gradual changes, eliminating whole milk and sweetened ice tea and adding whole-grain bread to the sandwich offerings.

North Hampton (N.H.) School food-service director Diane Marion '79 has been reducing fat and boosting fiber. Salad lovers: Megan Chase, left, and Caitlyn Ritchie.

During that first year, schools across the state used relatively small grants to make some big changes. Andover instituted a salad bar. North Hampton School planned a landscaped walking path around the playground where classes can take daily walking breaks and teachers can exercise during playground duty.

Meanwhile, Kimberly Cals had begun the UNH weight management program, run by Tagliaferro. Once a week, the class met at lunchtime to try out new recipes and listen to presentations by graduate students. After one session, Cals bought a star fruit. She and Sammie were stymied by the exotic fruit, however. "We kind of looked at it every day in the bowl on the table wondering what the heck to do with it," she recalls with a laugh.

Still, they kept trying new foods. In their new routine, Sammie made a fruit smoothie every morning. Lunch might be a whole-wheat wrap filled with tuna or veggies. Even dinners were usually homemade, with fish or chicken and plenty of vegetables. They avoided a sense of deprivation by indulging in the occasional Big Mac or a slice of pizza, minus the pepperoni.

Monitoring her daily steps with a pedometer, Cals started arriving at work half an hour early and going for a walk. Early on, she found herself huffing and puffing up the stairs to her office after her walk. But before long she could manage both walk and stairs with ease. By the end of the class, she had lost 12 pounds.

As for Kevin, the new emphasis on fitness and health at school had inspired him to join a karate class, and he was actually nudging his mother toward healthier choices when they went shopping together. Over the summer, Martin crunched the numbers from the "before" and "after" Physical Best tests at the 20 schools that had received grants. She was amazed by the progress that had been made in just six months: 27 percent more of the boys and 35 percent more of the girls had passed the test. Teachers reported lots of beaming faces when the students recognized their own progress—described not as passing or failing, but as getting into the "healthy zone." Says Martin, "You've got to focus on the positive with kids." That means talking about feeling better and being healthy, instead of losing weight.

The year had been a great success for Martin, but at a personal cost. After countless 60- to 70-hour workweeks spent at the computer, analyzing research and writing grants, she had—ironically—gained 30 pounds. Over the next year, even as she ramped up her program, ultimately training more than 300 teachers and school nurses, she made a point of going to the gym several days a week. She lost 50 pounds and now at the age of 50 can easily pass the Physical Best aerobic pacer test.

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