Beyond the Lens with Debi Voris: How Her Alternative Health Journey Can Help You Take Your Life Back
- DEBI VORIS
- 3 hours ago
- 13 min read
What is your name and what do you want the world to call you?
My name is Debi Voris. I’m a Certified Wholistic Health Coach who focuses on Mind & Body.
Where are you from and where do you call home now?
I’m a third-generation native Californian. I was born in San Rafael, California. When I was an infant, my family moved the hills of Encino. Eventually, I went to the Beverly Hills School District because my mom was a foreign language teacher at Beverly Hills High School. I graduated from UCLA.
If someone met you for the first time at a dinner party, how would you want them to describe you after the conversation ended?
Debi is passionate about revitalizing people’s lives with custom wholistic natural solutions. She is an encyclopedia on Alternative Heath and gives you solutions for mind, body and soul. With her knowledge, she helps you take your life back.
Take me back. What were you like as a little girl?
I was a very independent child who kept herself busy. I was very much involved in arts & crafts, drawing, needlepointing, etched glass, and also did some ceramic tile work. I wrote a little. I wrote scripts about my favorite book Basil of Baker Street created by author Eve Titus and illustrator Paul Galdone, written in 1958. Funny, Disney made this book into a movie in 1986. For a middle school project, I made a puppet stand and puppets for Civil War Project and performed a scene from Gone with the Wind. I also cooked a little. I made crepes for another project and Spanish Paella for the next project. One of my drawings ended up in Governor Grey Davis’ Office. It was a pencil drawing that looked like a half-eaten Butterfinger. Grey Davis wrote me a letter thanking me for my drawing. He hung it in his office and made him crave Butterfingers. Later at Beverly Hills High School, I created Black & White artwork for their student’s news show, Norman News. Everything at the time was Black & White and later transitioned to color.
What did you dream about becoming before the world told you what was realistic?
My real dream was to be film director. It was at the time when it was difficult for women to do this. I worked at Disney for some time and started my own video business, Visions - Computer Graphics & Video. I dabbled in 3-D animation with SoftImage and Topaz. Because of my work with Topaz, I was picked up by Pinnacle Systems, a Broadcast Graphics and Video Systems manufacturer. I demonstrated their products at NAB, and trained people how to use their equipment in many newsrooms, and TVShows like Donnie & Marie, Dr. Phil and others. I also tested their products and gave them ideas to make them better. Plus, I did Corporate Video.
Was there a moment, a person, or an experience early in your life that shaped how you see yourself today?
I did have a turning point later in my life. My mom was declining from Dementia to Alzheimer’s, and my son needed many therapies. I knew at the time I couldn’t continue my video business when a client was so upset that I had to take my son to one of his therapies even though he knew I needed to stop at a certain point.
Truly, I did not know what to do at that point. I took care of my mom and my son. I kept my creativity up making photobooks and photo keepsake products for people.
During all this time, I became depressed and gained a lot of weight and did not even notice it. It was tough being stretched in many directions with all I was doing. Luckily, my mom had a pension that paid for a 24-hour care giver. I had a sister there too, and she dropped the ball a lot.
It was later when I cried when I saw a family photo taken of us. Then I realized that I was “fat.” I punched my husband for letting me get so fat. Well, my husband got me a weight loss program for Christmas. I cried. He said “Oh no, what did I do?” I said these are tears of joy. He was going to do it with me. Because of the cost and my desire to lose weight, I committed to it and lost initially 50 LBS. I was their “Star Loser.” Anyways, even though I was taking Vitamin Shop and GNC vitamins, I was exhausted and went onto maintenance after I lost 50 LBS.
My mom passed away on July 31, 2013. I was supposed to go to a convention for the Photo Book and Photo keepsake company. I was exhausted and my husband said that we would go. We always made it into a family vacation. The next day, I found out that the company that I made photo books and keepsakes was purchased by a Health and Wellness company. In a way my head was spinning. I asked my husband should I purchase their flag ship product. He said yes. I did, but I did not take it right away. I had to clear my mom’s estate so it could be sold. My brother and I had to move my sister.
Later, I asked the company where I lost my weight if I had to continue with supplements. They said yes. Truly as a kid was barely a “Flintstone Vitamin Kid.” What I was taking was not working either. I was skeptical. I had that “Pak” at home. We paid for it. I decided to start taking it.
What is amazing is that I started to feel natural energy within 4 days. I used to go to bed around 8 PM and later stayed up to 10 PM. A lot of people did not know about my foot pain that I had from childhood to adulthood. It was painful to stand on my feet. I put up with it because it was part of me. Funny, one of my supervisors at Pinnacle Systems asked why I did not wear heels. I couldn’t. It was even painful to walk on a treadmill too. I had to put in 10,000 steps a day and that is how I did it even when I was in pain.
After a month, I noticed that the pain was subsiding. This health and wellness company did say their products helped with bone and joint issues. I decided to ease into running. I replaced walking with running of 5, 10, 15 minutes on a treadmill until I got to 40 to 50 minutes. I did this 4-5 days a week. I was so excited I told a friend who was a runner. She laughed and said that was nothing. She invited me to run with her. I was doing well until we did a 7-mile run. We were doing interval running. A combination of walking and running. I got to the point that when she walked, I had run to catch up to her. With that 7-mile run, she said I “hit a wall.” After more months of running, she came up to me and asked me if I wanted to do halfmarathon. I laughed and said she was nuts. I decided to do it because we got half price admission to do it.
On the day of my first half-marathon, my friend was coaching me to stay with her. Well, I got so excited by the “stampede” that I was ahead of her. She was yelling, “Debi slow down!” I completed the half-marathon before her. She said that I did a fantastic job. She had to go slow to help her another friend who had problems. She was very proud of me.
Later, the place where I was losing weight did a blood test. The nurse who read the blood test said to me, “What the hell are you doing?” I was shocked and I said that I changed my supplement plan. She said continued to do what I was doing, because my blood sugar and cholesterol dropped dramatically.
This was my turning point that I knew that I had to figure out how to share and became passionate about optimizing other’s health. There are always possibilities.
What is something about your upbringing that explains who you are now, even if it does not seem obvious on the surface?
It was not aware that my upbringing as a child was different than others until I was adult and married my husband. My husband’s mom was more of mom to me than my own mother.
I was last of three children, and we were five and quarter years apart. I was the “summer baby.” My brother was the “spring baby” and my sister was the “winter baby.” So, between me and my sister there is 10 and half year spread. My sister left when I was 7 years old. I really did not know her. I was talking to my hairdresser lately, and she said the spread meant that we did not play with each other and that was the case. Hence that is why I was always doing crafts or something on my own.
My parents were not abusive. They just did know how to be parents, and they were into their jobs. They grew up in the depression era. My father was a Captain in the Navy and in the Reserves. He was part of the JAG Core and traveled a lot. Plus, he had a successful legal business. I did not see him much. My mom was very much into being a foreign language teacher at a high school and the President of the Teacher’s Association and always part of the bargaining and negotiations team. In middle school, I would have to wait for her in the office. There were only foreign language books around. One was Latin and I started to teach myself Latin. When my mom saw that she created a Middle School “Before School Latin Class” that I and someone else was part of. Later in High School, I passed two AP’s in Latin by the Junior Year. My Mom developed another class for me to continue my education in High School. Unfortunately, UCLA did not accept Latin as a spoken language, so I had to take another language there.
I did not want to take a language that my mom knew. I had a choice of Greek or Russian. I was getting tired of the “classics” so I took Russian instead. I found out six months later that my mom was pregnant with me when she took Russian and that blew me away. Then my father said I should be in naval intelligence. I politely said no. So, being independent has been my life. Being an entrepreneur suited me.
What was happening in your life right before you decided to build what you are building now?
My right turn was switching from working in the Entertainment Business to being a Certified Wholistic Health Coach which is a completely different field. Why did I do this? It became my new passion. I learned that there are always possibilities. My health transformation proved it. I worked on my mindset more. I took Tony Robbins Core 100 that gave me a great foundation to understand others and know that anything is possible when you put your mind to it. It made me more confident too. Michael Bernoff’s HIT (Human Interaction Technology) taught me to learn to communicate better with others. I did my first TV show interview with a small show after this course. Later, I became curious more about how the mind works. Deb Erickson helped me with that. Yes, I was in total learning and growth mode. Then I put it into action. So, all this shaped my mindset to accept failure as a learning moment and keep moving forward.
Was there a breaking point? A moment you knew something had to change?
I believe there are many breaking points. You are meant to say, “Ok this did not work” and figure out your next action steps. Like I said earlier, marketing these days is not what it was before my child was born. Now I had to do videos, and shooting and editing them that came naturally to me. Funny quick and dirty was ok until now. I went with it because that what people were doing. Being on the camera was different. I was a mess on my first TV interview. Now I am host of a radio and tv show podcast. Boy AI is changing everything again. Whew!
Plus, I am woman that gets interrupted a lot with family situations. I do the best that I can do to get things done. Life is not perfect. I learned you cannot control what is going on around you. You can only control your own actions. You need to pick and choose what you can do. Some decisions become difficult to make. You need to take care of yourself, and don’t let others take you down. Unfortunately, these interruptions have slowed me down. Yet, I changed into becoming a stronger person for myself, and stood up for myself.
What did you have to walk away from to become who you are today?
I walked away from television and entertainment industry. I don’t miss it. I am happy that did not get entangled with what some women went through. When I felt something may happen, I got out of that situation right away. I was never put in that predicament.
If you could go back and tell yourself one thing in that moment, what would it be?
You know, I don’t want to go back other than I had more confidence that I never thought I had. Possibly say, “You got this!” By the way, I learned so much with my life that it made me a wiser human being.
How did you land in this specific field? Was it intentional or did it find you?
As I mentioned earlier, a Health and Wellness company came into my life when I went to convention for a Photobook Company. Yes, it found me. I’m glad it did. I learned all about different health issues and what to do for them. My education as a Certified Wholistic Health Coach explained what I had experienced in my twenties was due to my poor diet at the time.
Now with my son who is 24 years old, I see him suffering with the same issues I had back then. I know the solutions. Eating a clean toxic free diet, with no oils, and staying away from sugars and sodas. College life made him stray away from eating a clean toxic free diet.
Learning the importance of supplementation is very powerful, because our food is incomplete. Our bodies are like “Swiss Cheese.” Our food has gaps that supplementation fills in. It does make you feel better. It did for me. I’m doing things I never did before like running starting at 51 years old. Remember being open to changing your lifestyle. You will be amazed by what will happen.
What is the real reason you do this work? Not the polished answer. The true one.
The real reason that I do my work is because of what happened to me. Helping my son was a bonus. When my son was young, he barely ate. He had reflux and a lot of food he ate would come back out. I helped my son to eat by adding supplementation. It was successful. He started to explore new foods. He was and still is eager to try exotic foods. Unfortunately, people lose focus like my son has more recently.
Sometimes, people are too content with how they feel. They feel their health issues come with age and that is not necessarily true. Look at me running half-marathons for the first time at 51. If you want to be healthier you can. You’re meant to live a life of joy and happiness. Know life is not always easy. Getting over the hump gives you more than just satisfaction, it gives you empowerment. You know you can do anything when you put your mind to it. My journey all started when I improved my health without doctors.
What is the transformation you are actually trying to create in the people you serve?
Part of transformation is to show there is a glimmer of hope. The glimmer becomes a lighthouse that guides them to be the best possible person they can be. This transformation can only happen with someone who chooses, decides and commits to it. That is what I did and this November is my 13th year of keeping fit and trim even with obstacles. All of this is why I offer mindset coaching. A lot of people are stuck and cannot move away from their core belief. As I stated, they need to be willing and want to change. Change is not scary. It is enlightening.
If your business disappeared tomorrow, what is the one thing you would want people to remember it stood for?
I never let go of empowering others. Many people are impressed by my accomplishments. They need to know that they can do it too. A lot people consider me a “poster child” of good health.
When you are not working, who are you? What lights you up that has nothing to do with your business?
I love being with my husband and son. We love to travel. Personally, I love outdoor activities like skiing, scuba diving, hiking, walking and of course running. I love to watch movies. I’m looking forward to better movies in the future. Some touch me and others don’t. The story is more important than anything else.
What does a perfect ordinary Tuesday look like for you right now?
Funny, Tuesdays are my busiest days. It’s a mix of clients, ongoing trainings, and working on projects. I guess the mix gives me variety.
What is something most people do not know about you that you wish they did?
I started skiing at 4 years old with wooden skis and leather boots. I still ski moguls now at age of 62. K2s are my favorite skis.
What are you most afraid of, and how has that fear shaped the way you move through the world?
As I get older, fear happens, but I realize effects of fear on my mind and health. I calm down and analyze the fear. Is this fear worth it? No. I go with the flow to see what happens.
If you let yourself dream without limits, what does your life look like in five years?
This year is not what I expected at all. I believe a lot of people feel that way. So, in 5 years I will be securely established. All the foundations I am working on are clicking, working smoothly and bringing in a steady income. I won’t have the financial issues that I currently have. I will be doing retreats and changing people’s lives.
What is the legacy you want to leave behind, separate from money or titles?
My legacy is simple. People are learning how to revitalize their health, and they won’t let their mindset stop them. Then they have the drive to do what I do empower others to revitalize their health or have the passion they want to do to improve humanity.
What is one thing you are still working to become, even now?
I’m working on my mastering courses, programs and being a better speaker. I will eventually do master classes. We can always improve ourselves. I have a growth mindset. It keeps me young. Hey, I was once a wallflower who waited for people to talk to me.
If a woman reading this is standing exactly where you stood before everything changed, what do you want her to know?
Don’t be timid. Be brave. There are always possibilities to improve yourself. You may not have clarity. You will find it, and that is where the aha moment happens.
What is the one sentence you want people to remember about you?
I’m a wholistic solution finder for revitalizing your health, your mindset and your whole life.
Meet the expert:
Debi Voris, a Certified Wholistic Health Coach, was inspired to help others achieve lasting vitality after releasing 70 pounds at age 50 and overcoming severe foot pain to complete nine half-marathons starting at age 51. Having successfully maintained her health transformation for over 12 years and overcome depression, she proved to herself that anything is possible with the right mindset and wholistic care. Today, she empowers others to break through limiting beliefs and take their lives back through custom, natural health solutions.
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