The Laphans say total health includes the body, brain, pets and caring partners

EAST MANATEE -- If your New Year's resolution was to get fit in the new year, Dyan Laphan has some solid advice.

Scale that resolution back to something manageable.

"What I did every New Year was to add one healthy thing to my resolution list," Laphan said.

The first thing was walking, then eliminating white bread, then adding whole wheat bread then, one year, cutting out sugar completely. In recent years she has added yoga and other skills.

"I didn't try to revamp everything at once," Laphan said. "If you do them for awhile, they become habit. Now, a lot of those things are habits of my life."

Dyan Laphan, 63, is extremely fit, her husband Dennis Laphan confirms. People laugh at the way he describes her.

"She has like no cholesterol," Laphan said. "She has like no heartbeat. Her heart beats like 52 times a minute. That's it. She is much healthier than I am."

To get a healthy body, Dyan Laphan has blended her soul's passion -- her dogs -- with exercise, thereby mixing two of the couple's secrets to health.

Both Dyan and Dennis Laphan say people should take full responsibility for their own bodies through diet and exercise, nurture their brains through computer games, crossword puzzles and work, delight their hearts through positive relationships, both human and pet, and, finally, fire up their souls through passionate pursuits -- Dyan's is rescuing American Eskimo dogs and Dennis' are computers and gourmet cooking.

"I do all the cooking because Dyan spends more than 40 hours a week volunteering to save American Eskimos who are in danger of being put to sleep in a shelter," Dennis Laphan said of his wife of nearly 27 years.

But it works because Dennis Laphan loves to cook and he's taken his cooking duties to a new level. Laphan often delights their friends with six- or seven- or even eight-course French meals including bread, made without a bread machine, his wife said.

"The French think they invented butter," Dennis Laphan says with a laugh. "I eat some rich food. But everything in moderation."

"I feel great that he cooks every meal," Dyan Laphan said with a grin. "His bread is wonderful."

Dennis Laphan is committed to sharing what he has learned about being healthy.

"My new slogan is 'Health is the new wealth,'" Laphan said after an intense cardio and weight workout at his gym, Koko FitClub, 2531 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. in Lakewood Ranch. "I try to teach this to people who are coming into their 50s."

Small steps with passions

Dyan Laphan walks Sami, the largest of the couple's three American Eskimo dogs, in the morning and at night. That's four miles a day. She also belongs to the Lakewood Ranch Branch of the Manatee County YMCA and tries to go there six days a week. She takes cardio and cross training classes and yoga for flexibility and strength.

Laphan recommends starting an exercise plan slowly and to expect some bad weeks and months and even some injuries.

"You may even have to start all over," she said.

Doug Grice, owner of Koko FitClub, a franchised digital gym that started in 2007 in Boston, says Dennis Laphan is one of his most dedicated clients. Grice opened in Lakewood Ranch in 2014 and recently opened a second location in Ellenton this past October.

"Dennis really gets what we are about," Grice said.

Like his wife blends her passion for dogs with exercise, Dennis Laphan, who retired about 10 years ago after a career in product development and executive management, blends his love of computer technology with exercise.

When he goes to Koko FitClub -- the club is accessible 24/7 -- he has a USB port, called a Koko key, that he plugs into the treadmill and weight machine. His membership includes a skilled human coach besides a computer voice in the treadmill that instructs and encourages him through earbuds.

"My Koko key has all my personal data, including what I did the last time I was in," Laphan said. "Everything they need to know about me is there. This is one of the things I like best about Koko, the technology. I am competitive that way. I compete against myself and also check to see how I rank against everyone else, which I am pretty good for my age."

Despite the French food and an occasional White Castle hamburger, Laphan has kept his weight in the 170 to 182 range.

The cardio benefits of the treadmill at Koko and the

unique computerized weight machines at the club, each of which is capable of doing 130 exercises, keep him feeling "terrific," he said.

The digital weight machines "can control how long Dennis' muscles are under tension," Grice said.

Koko has also provided Laphan with a nutrition plan.

"There are a variety of packages, but it's somewhere between $119 per month and $249 depending if you want a training coach with you every session," Grice said.

After a workout and while his wife is at the YMCA, Laphan returns home to play with the dogs and jump on the computer.

"There is nothing like the feeling you get when you just pet a dog," Laphan said.

"Cities Skylines" on his computer is what works out his brain. In the game, he creates a city and its population thrives or doesn't thrive based on how well he does his job as city planner.

"It keeps the brain moving because you have to balance all of these things," Laphan said.

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@Richard Dymond.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "The Laphans say total health includes the body, brain, pets and caring partners ."