Pizza Diet Preps Athlete for Marathon

ST. PETERSBURG – Unlike Jared of Subway, who is paid by a corporation to promote its product, Matt McClellan leads by example.

The owner of Tour de Pizza in St. Petersburg says he gets no compensation – other than the satisfaction of inspiring others – as he promotes eating healthy pies for good nutrition.

McClellan's latest venture is training to compete on Lance Armstrong's Live Strong Team for a Nov. 6 marathon in New York City.

"I'm raising money here at the shop and collecting donations," said McClellan, whose pizza shop is in the Publix shopping center off 4th Street North.

He is a firm supported of the Live Strong Foundation. "It's for a great cause" he said.

McClellan is on a four-month all-pizza diet leading up to the race, a diet he started and has promoted.

McClellan is quick to say that he does not want his "Pizza Diet" to be classified as a fad diet. He said that his pizza diet actually suits his training regimen.

"You can use the Pizza Diet to build muscle and at the same time have the endurance to run a 26-mile marathon," McClellan said boldly.

McClellan's enthusiasm is easy to catch. He is a natural salesman and believes in the causes he supports.

McClellan opened his first pizza shop in 2004, all the way out in Colorado. As a pizza man, it would make a lot of sense if McClellan were Italian, but his Irish roots tell a different story. Luckily, his business partner at the time was Sicilian and brought his pizza knowledge from Brookyln, New York.

McClellan sold his Denver pizzeria in 2007 and then headed to the southeast where he opened Tour de Pizza. His shop is popular with folks who shop at the nearby Publix and live in north St. Pete.

His 30 Day Pizza Diet was invented after McClellan bore witness to an unhealthy college kid back in Denver. "I saw that he was going down the wrong path," said McClellan. "He was 19 years old, obese and on a path to destruction."

McClellan would only sell two slices of a pizza to the teen, at a time. Eventually, the two formed a bond and began exercising together. In three months, the teen lost 50 pounds. McClellan was on to something.

He let everyone know that he would lose weight by eating eight slices of pizza per day. McClellan packed on the veggies, meats and other toppings to his slices that were necessary to make the diet a healthy success. He did and the world watched.

Last year, McClellan completed a 1,300-mile, 30-day bike ride to New York City, where he only stopped and ate at pizzerias along the way.