Dr. Leslie Kasanoff has spent her life in healthcare, including 25 years as a holistic chiropractor on the Central Coast of California and 10 years before that as a medical laboratory scientist. Recently, Dr. Leslie has been combining her science knowledge and her holistic & nutritional expertise in health coaching and consulting. She works with women who want to lose weight, address hormone issues, and resolve or reverse chronic health issues, not just treat them, using food and lifestyle as medicine.
https://www.facebook.com/leslie.kasanoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlesliekasanoff/
https://www.instagram.com/dr.lesliek/
Resources Leslie mentions:
https://www.adventurecycling.org/
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Remarks
Today’s guest, Leslie Kasanoff, started biking long distance as a young woman. Then she put it aside as she raised her family, and didn’t take it up again until she semi-retired. So while she wasn’t a complete novice, she was starting over.
One of the things that impresses me the most about her story is her comfort with solo travel. I think that’s something that becomes a necessary option for women my age. Some of us are single or have partners that don’t have the same desire to see the world. Being happy with our own company is essential.
Personally I have not had an active lifestyle. I greatly admire my guests like sprinter Madonna Hanna and biker Leslie Kasanoff but I’m not there yet.
I am well aware of the things I need to be doing to feel fit and healthy as I age. I do some of them. Today’s guest gave me some very convincing reasons to consider modifying my diet. And despite her distaste for ebikes that’s an option I’m considering.
I’m curious what you take away from her approach to wellness. Let me know what you think after you’ve listened. Here’s the interview.
Transcript
Liz Sumner
My guest today is Dr. Leslie Kasanoff. She’s a health coach with a strong background in science, including 25 years as a holistic chiropractor. And before that, as a medical laboratory scientist. She’s also an avid bicyclist who has toured, self-contained, by bike from weekend excursions to a 3000 mile tour. Welcome, Dr. Leslie.
Leslie Kasanoff
Thanks, Liz,
Liz Sumner
I want to hear about your biking. But before that, tell me more about your background and your current work.
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, my background, as you indicated, is both in medical laboratory science sciences and in chiropractic. And as a holistic chiropractor, I basically coached people all those years, while I was in practice to live a more more holistic lifestyle. So pay attention to the diet, pay attention to the exercise, pay attention to your lifestyle, decreased stress, all the things that we know we should be doing. And when I went through menopause, I had some problems with that. And that kind of brought me full circle, back to a more holistic approach, doing the research for that, and finding my own solutions because I had gained 20 pounds in two months when I went by identical hormones. So that clearly was not going to work. So that I was 20 pounds heavier to boot and had to find the solution. So the thing that I say about that is when I found that, that ability to begin to think clearly again, that’s when I the light bulb went on said I can’t let other women go through this without trying to help them. So that’s a lot of why I made this transition into more health coaching consulting.
Liz Sumner
Well, that sounds awfully important. Tell me a little bit more about about what you wanted women to know.
Leslie Kasanoff
So I think the biggest thing I want women to know is that there’s kind of this idea in this country, that somewhere between your late 40s and your late 50s you’re gonna go through about three years of pure hell. And then it doesn’t have to be that way. Yeah, and what goes on the end of your fork, and your environment, control your hormones to a very, very high degree. And once you get those things straight, then you can begin to get a handle on balancing those hormones without suffering. And that’s what I help people do.
Liz Sumner
So have you always had a healthy lifestyle?
Leslie Kasanoff
Actually, you know, the funny part about it is that I haven’t, I was raised by a mother who was basically a convenience cook. And by convenience cook. I mean, broiled meat. canned vegetables. Yes. And potatoes or pasta or rice. That was about the extent of the variety of our diet. And I was never a meat eater. And I hated P is a kid, huh? Huh? I mean, I would do anything to get on PE. So no, it wasn’t until but but I did enjoy bicycle. Okay, it wasn’t really until after I graduated high school that I really started getting more into cycling,
Liz Sumner
Was your body that kind that no matter what you ate you were always relatively fit as a youngster or no,
Leslie Kasanoff
no, no, I was not fit as a youngster at all. In fact, you know, I think like so many other girls of my era, I dieted because you were supposed to be skinny, and you know, took on all of that stuff. So I started, I started dieting and running when I was in college, to lose weight, and then moved more more seriously into the bicycle from there because it was a lot more fun than running.
Liz Sumner
and and what led you to chiropractic?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, the story with that is that as I mentioned, I did start out as medical lab scientist. And one of the very last things I had to do before I got my certification medical lab sciences involves a year Long internship in a hospital. And one of the very last things that I had to do before I got my certification was I had to assist at the bedside for a bone marrow biopsy. And it was just a horrendous experiences little old lady that was having a bone marrow biopsy done. Just because she had a high white blood cell count on admission, it was just it was just something they discovered. And horrible, horrible procedure because they don’t anesthetize for it. And you knows, blood curdling screams just awful. And they finally get the sample. And they give it to me, I make the microscope slides, bring the sample and the slides back to the lab. And I hand it to the senior tech, and tell her about my experiences. She looks at me with these sad eyes. And she says, But mostly, they don’t even treat leukemia in patients that.
Liz Sumner
Oh,
Leslie Kasanoff
Exactly. And I was just devastated to think that I had assisted in that. And then simultaneously, the light bulb went on to realize that in that position, or in any other position I could ever hope to grow to from where I currently was, I could never have an effect on changing that paradigm. And so that’s when I decided that I needed to be somewhere on the other side of the fence keeping people from having to get into that in the first place. And so that’s what I dedicated my, the rest of my career to.
Liz Sumner
Okay. Alright, so when does the long distance biking happen? What’s your journey to get to really being an avid bicyclist?
Leslie Kasanoff
So when I got done with school, I sat my boards, I got the requisite job that I actually enjoyed. I just I just knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And worked for a year. And we had just been through a really god awful Blizzard a couple of years, couple of years earlier. And I had had to walk two and a half miles from my apartment to the hospital in the blizzard, because I had co workers that lived in New Hampshire 50 miles away, they weren’t gonna make it. This was in Boston. And so like I said, What, what, two miles to the hospital in the blizzard. And I decided after that, that I was done with New England winters. So I worked worked for the year. And I just decided somewhere around, I think was probably around November, December, I decided I really want to go on a cross country bicycle trip. And because I really enjoyed cycling, I was doing a lot of cycling at the time. And I mentioned it to a friend of mine. And a couple of weeks later, he handed me a copy of what was then called the American wheelman magazine. Named has since been changed, but and in the back of it was some classified ads. And there were a couple of guys in Connecticut not far from me that were looking for other people to join them on a bicycle trip. And so one thing led to another I ended up going with them. And so that’s how that kind of evolved. How old are you? 24. So I basically worked for a year and you know, and had, I was saving my money the whole time with the intention of quitting and leaving Massachusetts and looking for someplace nice and warm and sunny on the West Coast that I wanted to stay.
Liz Sumner
What did you do to train for a cross country trip?
Leslie Kasanoff
Actually, that was kind of fun, too, because I was living. I was living on a peninsula that’s about eight miles from the city that has a passenger ferry that goes into Boston, that’s eight miles across the ocean about 25 miles around. So I would ride to the ferry in the morning which was five or six miles from my house. I would take take the bicycle and V out on the ferry, ride my bike to the hospital work my shift at the hospital and then I would ride all the way home which was 25 miles by land wow after work, so but yeah after work and And the fun part was that I would get home about the same time as the people I knew who drove.
Liz Sumner
I used to live near Boston, I can relate. So how long were you doing that before you actually took off on the Cross Country trip?
Leslie Kasanoff
Um, I would say six months or so.
Liz Sumner
Okay. And did it feel like enough? Or did you feel ready once you started going cross country,
Leslie Kasanoff
the only thing that I didn’t do than that I have done in other trips since then, is that I didn’t ride with loaded packs. So I still had some getting use to to accomplish from that, but I was pretty much in good enough shape.
Liz Sumner
Okay, so tell me about being self contained?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, it just means that you’ve got everything that you need to survive. So your, you know, your clothes, your sleeping bag, your tent, usually a day or a so’s worth of food, because, you know, you stop along the way and pick things up.
Liz Sumner
And this was before cell phones. So were you ever out of communication in a way that felt uncomfortable?
Leslie Kasanoff
Not really. I think we get so dependent on having our phones now that we have them. And now I had a standing date with my mother every Sunday night.
Liz Sumner
And what route did you take?
Leslie Kasanoff
Now here’s here’s the thing, we actually did not go all the way across the country. We took a bus, a Greyhound bus from Boston and Connecticut to Billings, Montana, which if you know your geography is on the east side of the Continental Divide, okay. And then it took us about a week from there to get to Yellowstone and we went through Yellowstone and the and the Tetons and the Sawtooth mountains in Idaho and all those high plateaus and Idaho just kind of made our way west from there all the ways straight through Oregon hit the coast in Central Oregon and then headed south from there
Liz Sumner
Now I don’t remember any giant mountains around Boston that so when you were training you were not doing altitude and how did that affect you?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, that’s that’s exactly right. And that’s part of the reason why we we landed in Billings because it took us about a week. Billings is uh, I want to say it’s five or 6000 foot elevation. It took us about a week to get from Billings to Yellowstone and so we were on high plateau there and there were ups and downs but nothing major. And, and Boston, as you know, is not high elevation, but there’s lots of ups and downs.
Liz Sumner
I’m terribly impressed that you just said Oh, okay, here we are in Billings, Montana. I’m going to go over those. I remember the first time I saw Pikes Peak I nearly fainted and I was in a car.
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, but but but here’s the funny part because I because I just mentioned about Boston when you think about it places like Beacon Hill. The hill they’re very, very short, but they’re very, very steep.
Liz Sumner
True, but did you have hills like that in your training plan?
Leslie Kasanoff
Not a lot. But you know, but but I had the appropriate gearing for it and I was young and yeah.
Liz Sumner
So tell me about some of your trips through the years How did you build on that?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well I actually did take a lot of years off as far as the touring thing to do the career and kid thing and in retrospect I have met people more recently that have taken their children on tours with them and I kind of wish we had done that and we didn’t but you know that’s one of those things and we very well could have because my my ex is also a cyclist. And so there’s no reason why we couldn’t have done that we just didn’t we let life get in the way.
Liz Sumner
How did you get back into it?
Leslie Kasanoff
Basically when I started doing the kind of semi retirement that I always did do some cycling I just never we just didn’t tour but when the kids moved out and I started doing the semi retirement thing it just you know one thing led to another and did a couple of trips and and just kind of from there and I actually did 600 plus miles this past summer, solo.
Liz Sumner
Solo?
Leslie Kasanoff
Yeah.
Liz Sumner
Wow. Oh, tell me about how that’s different and what kinds of experiences you have doing it solo?
Leslie Kasanoff
Solo is, um, is a whole different ballgame, especially in this day and age because, you know, some people might say, you know, they might get scared, they might think it’s not safe. And I would beg to differ with that.
Liz Sumner
Have you done solo trips before.
Leslie Kasanoff
So I actually did. So that original bike trip that I was on, the guys that I was with, left, we had pre designated that they were completing their ride in San Francisco. So because they all had jobs to go back to, and I actually continued on the coat on down the coast by myself. Wow. Now the thing, the thing of it is, is that there’s a lot of what are called biker hiker campsites on the state campgrounds in California. So they’re a site where they bring all the people that hike in, or bicycle and they bring them together in one kind of group site. So even though you might be cycling alone, you’re never camping by yourself, and things of that nature. And it was pretty similar to that when I was on this trip this summer. And when I was on the trip this summer, I’m also a member now of a group that’s online called Warm Showers. And it’s basically an they’re not an internationalist, bicyclist hospitality community. It’s kind of like Couch Surfing for cyclists.
Liz Sumner
I’ll put a link to that, I’ll make sure that that’s in the show notes.
Leslie Kasanoff
So I actually did about, in the three weeks that I was gone, I did about seven or eight warm showers stays, and I did about three or four hotel stays. And then I camped the rest of the time. So I didn’t camp every night. And the nights that I did camp I was again in like biker hiker type sites in national parks and that kind of thing. So in terms of safety non-problem,
Liz Sumner
and do you find many people like yourself in these campsites
Leslie Kasanoff
I find quite a few actually. Yeah,
Liz Sumner
that’s good to know,
Leslie Kasanoff
I actually tend to find– when I was in– Now, one of the places I was in this past summer was I was in Glacier National Park. And absolutely gorgeous. And almost all of the people that were touring, were actually solo. There were a lot of other cyclists there that rented bikes, rented e-bikes for the day to go up going to the Sun Highway and that kind of thing. Um, so there were a lot of other cyclists there. There are a lot of people who brought their bikes with their, you know, it with their equipment and whatnot. But as far as tourists, almost without exception, the tourists that I met in Glacier where we were also solo.
Liz Sumner
and were you all mature?
Leslie Kasanoff
Most of us were older. Yeah, just thinking back there was one gentleman that I met that came out from New York when things lightened up from the pandemic, and he’s older than I am, he’s in he’s in his early 70s, I think. And there was another gentleman that I met that was, I want to say 40 ish, who’s a teacher? And, you know, so people like that.
Liz Sumner
And what are your feelings about ebikes? And, and tell me about the equipment that you think is optimal?
Leslie Kasanoff
I kinda have a love hate relationship with e-bikes. Because I like the idea that they’re getting people out that wouldn’t otherwise get out and they are getting some exercise. But I’ll tell you, when I was riding up going to the Sun Highway, there was a big part of me that wanted to tell these ebike people, why don’t you come back in 30 years with a real bike because they were all significantly younger than me is like if you’re riding that now.
Liz Sumner
So what what did you start with what kind of bike and what did you upgrade to?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, I think the optimal bike depends a lot on you and your body type and your age and and that kind of thing. And what you’re intention is for the bicycle. So I do have both a touring bike and a road bike. So I have that small, light, tight bike that can go fast. That is not made for trudging up long distance mountain passes, but is a hell of a lot of fun, I kind of liken it to my little sports car. And I also have my touring bike that has a much longer wheelbase. So it’s much more comfortable, it can fit, you know, wider tires, and the gearing is much more oriented to being able to pedal long distances up hills. So it really depends on what you’re using your bicycle for what kind of bicycle you’re going to have,
Liz Sumner
I’m thinking that there might be people who would be interested in getting started with biking. And there also might be people listening, who are interested in doing a long distance trip, and possibly alone. So could you speak to both of those just people getting started? What resources and or advice for people who just want to, to? Who are just considering? Maybe I’ll start riding a bike? How would you suggest that they start, what things should they be thinking about and looking at,
Leslie Kasanoff
I think for somebody that hasn’t done cycling before, and really thinks they might want to, I think a good place to start is probably buying a used bike. And just getting out there and seeing how much you like it. And there are there’s a ton of info. Adventure Cycles is one resource of maps and equipment and stuff. And that’s a nonprofit, a national nonprofit. And there are also numerous groups on Facebook that can you know, there is actually a solo cycling, I forget the exact name of the group, but there’s a solo bicycling group arm there are if your audience is mostly female, which I’m not sure there are a couple of women only bicycle groups on Facebook as well. So there’s, there’s a lot of resources there. Your local bike shop is an excellent resource for just for just learning. Most of the people that work in bike shops are very happy to talk to you about the difference between bikes. But you know, one of the big things that you’re looking for if you’re going to chore, like I said, is you want something with that longer wheelbase, so that it absorbs more shock, and things like that.
Liz Sumner
How much gear do you take when you’re doing your 600 miles?
Leslie Kasanoff
I had about 40 pounds with me, plus the weight of the bike.
Liz Sumner
And what about advice for people who are bikers, but haven’t considered really doing long distance and incorporating camping along with their biking?
Leslie Kasanoff
I think the biggest thing is, you know, it’s so funny because I have seen people touring on every kind of bike imaginable. And so as you get older, you get a little bit more to where you want a little bit more comfort. And the bike that you bought 20 years ago that you just use around town and stuff may not be the best bike for a long distance tour, because the way it’s designed, so I just say, you know, be open to that possibility. But the other half of it is if you’re young, and this is your first trip or that kind of thing else, it’s all up to the individual. Yeah.
Liz Sumner
And if I were going to be investing in something, something for comfort, not necessarily high end, but good, basic and comfortable. What kind of cost am I thinking about?
Leslie Kasanoff
You could you could start with something it you know, probably in the 12 to $1500 range.
Liz Sumner
Okay, so tell me what we should be thinking of going forward.
Leslie Kasanoff
I think it all comes down to knowing what it is that you want to do. And just pursuing that and keeping in mind. to use your body as a vehicle in that to support you in that pursuit, you have to feed it properly.
Liz Sumner
Tell me about for, for people who are not currently very healthy. What’s the most important thing in order to come back to get to a stable?
Leslie Kasanoff
I would say that the easiest place to start is to back off on the processed foods, put more fruits and veggies on your plate. Don’t worry about not eating me. maybe think about eating less meat, I’ve been working with one of my brothers in this respect. And what I said to him was take the amount of meat that you’re eating and cut it in thirds, okay? Put the other two thirds away for two other meals, okay, and put an extra veggie and a salad on your plate at every meal. That’s a really good starting place. Okay, good. And the other thing that I would say also is try to get rid of rich sauces, things that have butter and dairy added to them. I actually highly recommend if I’m going to recommend that you extricate one thing from your diet, it would be dairy, because we are not baby cows.
Liz Sumner
Oh, would I miss that. So it can I can I cut down but not eliminate it entirely?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, that’s up to you to determine. You know, the thing that I tell people is that dairy is basically its bovine growth fluid. So what it is, it was designed by nature to turn a cute little 40-pound calf into 1000-pound cow in a year. And then when you concentrate it when you put it into cheese, you’re giving yourself that much more of all those hormones that are in it. And those are naturally occurring hormones.
Liz Sumner
But what about what about eggs? And fish?
Leslie Kasanoff
Eggs are very similar? Yeah, um, you know, I kind of put them on a hierarchy of dairy’s undoubtably the worst in terms of the hormones and the stuff that’s in it. And then eggs are probably second. And then after that is probably chicken. Because when you think about it, a chicken lays an egg every single day. That’s life. So that takes a hell of a lot of estrogen. We don’t think about that.
Liz Sumner
Oh, my goodness.
Leslie Kasanoff
And that’s affecting our estrogen levels. Oh, yeah. And you know, you’re talking to a former cheese and ice cream addict. So I want you to know that I get it.
Liz Sumner
Okay
Leslie Kasanoff
And there are some decent cream cheese types substitutes. Now, I think all of the grated cheese substitutes stink.
Liz Sumner
Yeah, I used to work in a natural natural food distributor. And all of the fake cheeses– it’s like shavings of plastic.
Leslie Kasanoff
Yeah, yeah, they just, they don’t taste like the real thing. There are there are some of the companies that are working more now with using different nuts and that kind of thing and grinding them up and, and even inoculating them with the same bacterium that they use in in cheese. So those are a lot more flavorful. And, and there are some decent cream cheese type products on the market. But most of the hard cheese type products aren’t very good. I don’t think.
Liz Sumner
And goats and sheep are just as equally bad as as cows?
Leslie Kasanoff
Well, I wouldn’t say there is equally bad because they’re smaller animals. They have less of those hormones and stuff in them. Because they’re made for smaller animals. So okay, yeah, so they’re not going to be as bad.
Liz Sumner
You’ve given me a lot to think about. Anyhow, I thank you. Despite the bad news that you’ve given me about changing my diet. I am very grateful for your time and have it really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you. My thanks to Dr. Leslie Kasanoff. You can find out more about her and her work in the show notes. I invite everyone to write and tell me what you’ve always wanted to try. I’m Liz Sumner, reminding you to be bold and thanks for listening
Transcribed by https://otter.ai