Step

Forward is a Bible-based approach to weight loss and

weight management.

Using the

Christian 12-step program, Julie Morris developed the

plan, which she says helps to fill an individual's

emotional, nutritional and spiritual needs

simultaneously.

Morris

visited Fayette County Sunday and spent the day at

Providence United Methodist Church sharing her story and

encouraging others to "cast their cares on God

- not on the refrigerator."

Petite and

trim, Morris lives in Birmingham, Ala. and said she has

struggled with her weight all her life. "Twenty

years ago, I would eat everything... food really did

become my best friend."

"At

age 3, I was a chunky little thing," she recalls.

Later, she developed a penchant for peanut butter and

banana sandwiches, eating five or six without stopping.

"The more food I ate, the hungrier I got,"

Morris said. In her teen years she convinced herself that

being thin equated with happiness, and at college she

began to starve herself, then binge, a type of bulimia

that resulted in in her becoming malnourished and covered

with red bumps, a symptom of her undernourished state.

High blood

pressure, stress and the feeling that something was

missing in her life despite a loving husband, toddler son

and rewarding job, finally led her to the answer. "I

think I need God," Morris said she told her husband.

"I

became a Christian as kind of a dare," Morris said.

She believed her change of attitude and new spiritual

alliance would cause her life to become a "happily

ever after" existence. "I was so wrong. My food

problem got worse as I got older and it more and more to

fill me up."

Now a

registered nurse supervising a 44-bed surgical unit with

two young children, and skyrocketing blood pressure,

Morris was encouraged by a physician to "Come to God

with an open mind and an open spirit. Be on his

team," he told me. Instead of beating me up with

scripture, I was told, `Stop overeating; you're being

disobedient.'"

In 1982,

Morris moved to Florida and used the Christian 12-step

plan modeled after the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous,

taking steps toward God through Jesus Christ, to lose

weight and come to grips with the emotional hot buttons

that drove her to overeat. The result was the emergence

of a woman in control of her life with a gift to share

with others stuck in the dieting cycle.

"In

1992, my minister encouraged me to start a group within

our church," said Morris, "the emphasis being

on baby steps." Within the parameters of two Bible

studies, Morris' life-style plan began to take shape.

"It took me two years to write the proposal,"

she said. Abingdon Press offered her a book contract, and

just last year she came out with the Step Forward Diet

designed for individuals.

Morris

talked with several women at Providence who say they are

proof that her plan works. Mary Inlow went from a size 14

dress size to a size six since adopting the program in

September 1999. Inlow, who lives with her daughter Marsha

Wells, said, "We changed our eating habits... it's

not a diet. If you've got to have that taste of something

sweet, you do it. Journaling helps."

Providence

also has a women's group which meets on Wednesday

evenings for Step Forward. Inlow said the camaraderie

found in the group sessions is helpful, not to mention

the gold stars awarded to weight loss winners.

Morris'

books are available at most Christian book stores and can

be ordered through Abingdon Press by phoning

1-800-251-3320 or faxing 1-800-836-3320.