EVANSVILLE —Nancy McClellan of Evansville has never watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — until now.

This morning, she, husband Lee and daughter Mandi will tune in, hoping to see their 34-year-old son and brother, Matt McClellan, marching down New York City’s Seventh Avenue.

On a float or holding down a giant helium balloon? No. with a band? Not really. for dough? Uh, sort of.

The 6-foot-2 McClellan, a 1994 graduate of Reitz High School and the owner of a bicycle-themed pizzeria in St. Petersburg, Fla., will march with the 22-member U.S. Pizza Team, some of them acrobatic types who spin and toss dough with parade precision while representing Pizzamaker Quarterly magazine.

As the owner of Tour de Pizza, McClellan is relatively new to the group, but he’s been dubbed its “health and fitness coach” because of national attention he’s drawn as the creator of the 30-day pizza diet.

More than a year ago McClellan, out to prove that pizza can be part of a healthy lifestyle, lost 25 pounds by eating nothing but pizza every meal for a month. he had supervision from a nutrition and wellness consultant and a trainer and made his medical data available for all to see.

He also lowered his cholesterol 86 points, dropped his blood pressure to 118/80, shed 10 percent of his body fat and dropped 5 inches from his waist.

As a follow-up, this past summer McClellan rode a bicycle 1,300 miles from Florida to New York, stopping in 22 cities, aiming to change public perception and tout pizza as “the healthiest fast-food option.”

McClellan says it started as an experiment in 2009 after he heard about some legislators lobbying for an “18 percent sin tax” on pizza and soft drinks, singling them out for the obesity in America.

McClellan, then carrying 205 pounds on his tall frame, says he looked healthier than he was. A fast-food diet heavy on burgers, fries, colas and energy drinks had contributed to his high cholesterol. he also had high blood pressure.

At first, he says, he was mainly interested in lowering his risks for heart disease.

Although he emphasizes a doctor should always be consulted before trying an extreme diet, his plan was simple: one thin pizza slice every three hours (six a day) combined with an hour of exercise each day, including cardio, swimming and biking.

Moderation was the key, and he changed the topping each time to meet his nutritional needs — less pepperoni and more spinach, more avocado and organic Roma tomatoes, also artichokes, lean meats, even sushi, which he and his wife, Larissa, enjoy.

McClellan: “I did it real life, was transparent. I still ran the restaurant 40 to 50 hours a weeky; I ate in front of people, I didn’t go disappear and work out like a maniac. I’m a pizza guy, not a doctor or expert. I put a team of professionals around me so I could answer questions. I gave my blood work to the media before and after.”

McClellan, who opened his Florida pizzeria three years ago, majored in mass communications and marketing at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

He says, on New Year’s Eve in Times Square the national Sbarro pizza chain will help him launch a nationwide pizza diet promotion.

If nothing else, he says, pizza can be a healthy snack if done properly and in moderation.

“I want to be the face for mom-and-pop restaurants, for families who work tirelessly every day,” he said during a phone interview in which he recalled Friday nights in Evansville “when Dad would get a pizza (barbecue-flavored, in squares) from Pizza King on Weinbach Avenue.”

Nancy McClellan says when she first heard about her son’s diet, “it didn’t make sense,” but as she listened to his explanation, “I came on board. I realize he wasn’t talking about the meat-lovers kind of pizza, he was talking about proportions, healthy vegetables. In Florida they’re more open to organic (foods).”

She says the family tracked his adventure on Facebook and Twitter and flew out to New York City’s Times Square last summer when he finished his East Coast bicycle tour where pizza is king.

Keri Gans, a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association, told the St. Petersburg Times she wasn’t surprised McClellan lost weight, based on his exercise and previous diet. However, she said just because it worked for him doesn’t mean it will work for others.

She said introducing a slice of pizza to your diet is healthier than eating pizza all of the time. if you ate only pizza, she said, you might consume too much saturated fat or lack some of the vitamins and nutrients of fruit and whole grain.