About PaleoPlan and Our Paleo Expert Team

Our goal at PaleoPlan is to make eating and living Paleo as easy and affordable as possible for you. For that reason, we’ve created a weekly Paleo diet meal plan service and a couple of Paleo Books to help make eating Paleo easier for you.

PaleoPlan Team


Sally Barden Johnson, Registered and Licensed Dietitian

Sally-Johnson-combined-2015.jpgI am a Registered and Licensed Dietitian with a Masters of Arts Degree in Applied Physiology. After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Rutgers University, I went back to school and turned my intense interest in food into a career. I completed my course requirements at Hunter College of the City of New York, an internship at Harlem Hospital, and I passed the RD exam. I topped off my education at Teacher’s College of Columbia University.

I spent many years working in clinical and community settings as a traditional dietitian before discovering and adopting a Paleo/Primal lifestyle. With growing awareness of the evidence mounting against the efficacy of mainstream nutrition principles and the obvious signs of decline in the health status of children and adults including myself, I walked into my local CrossFit, went Paleo and changed my life.

I started CrossFitting three times a week, gave up grains, dairy (with the exception of butter), legumes, highly processed oils and sugar and incredible things happened. My digestion improved, I gained muscle, lost fat, and resolved a host of inflammatory health issues, some so quickly that I was stunned. My friends could see a difference in me right away. They told me I looked “brighter” which was exactly how I felt. That uninvited heavy brain fog, long settled in, was lifting and letting in the light. In just a few months, my Paleo-CrossFit journey had taken me to a place I had been trying in vain to get to for 20 years with traditional methods. It turns out all I had to do was EAT REAL FOOD and workout at a level a bit beyond my comfort zone a few times a week. I now share this newly found knowledge gained through experience with anyone willing to listen.

I currently live in San Antonio Texas where I lead Paleo cooking classes and work with clients to find the best nutritional solutions to their health issues within a Paleo framework. When I’m not working and researching all things Paleo/Primal, I enjoy spending quality family time with my husband who is a military Orthopaedic Surgeon and Sports Medicine Specialist, our two very active teenagers, and our dog, Spots. My role at PaleoPlan involves blogging, posting original recipes, answering comments and questions and working on various projects.
Sally Johnson’s Articles


Kinsey Jackson, Certified Nutrition Specialist®

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Hi! My name is Kinsey and I’m a Certified Nutrition Specialist® practitioner, specializing in integrative and functional nutrition. I graduated with summa cum laude honors and my Master of Science in Human Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport, and previously earned my Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology (and a chemistry minor!) with cum laude honors from Western Washington University. I have been licensed as a massage therapist for 15 years, and am close to completing my Pilates instructor training through Balanced Body®. I’m slowly but surely working towards my Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (CFMP) and Certified Clinical Nutritionist (CCN) credentials as well. I emphasize functional nutrition and functional movement in my clinical practice, located in Bellingham, WA., as well as provide nutrition services here at PaleoPlan.

In my late twenties I fell very ill after the sudden loss of my beloved father, developing multiple autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, alopecia areata, eczema, and hypothyroidism). I was crippled, bald, covered in painful rashes, and extremely depressed. When my Naturopathic Doctor told me that I needed to quit eating grains and legumes, I thought she was crazy, as I had been eating a vegetarian/vegan diet for nearly 25 years. Thankfully I have a strong background in biology and chemistry, and after intensely researching the biochemical mechanisms by which anti-nutrients from grains and legumes contribute to a leaky gut and subsequent inflammation in the body, I realized that I had no choice but to abandon my long-term vegetarian diet and ‘go Paleo.’ This was one of the most difficult transitions I’ve ever made, as my vegetarian diet had become deeply engrained into my personality as well as my belief system. However, after only a few days of eating Paleo, my symptoms began to subside and I knew there was no turning back. Within a couple of months, my diseases had gone into remission as witnessed by my bloodwork and the disappearance of all of my symptoms. I know that it’s my diet keeping me well, because whenever I ‘faileo’ (and eat something I know I shouldn’t), my symptoms return within a day or two. Going Paleo was hands down the most incredible and inspiring change I have ever made in my life. Since then, I have been on a mission to help others transition to a Paleo/Primal lifestyle, and have had the extreme pleasure of witnessing literally hundreds of individuals overcome their health issues and chronic diseases just by changing their diets.

When you have had your health taken away, and then given back, you can’t help but be completely inspired to do all you can to help others also reclaim their health and vitality. This has become my life’s purpose, and I am so grateful for PaleoPlan’s guidance, which played a huge role in helping me to understand how to eat and prepare Paleo foods, something I was completely unfamiliar with at the time. I have been using the PaleoPlan Quickstart Guide for several years to host 30-day paleo challenges for my clients with great success, and am thrilled to now be a consulting Nutritionist for the company that played a significant role in my journey to become Paleo.

My hobbies include researching and reading, Pilates, mindfulness meditation, playing and composing music, dancing, hiking, boating, and cooking for my family including my adorable wiener dog Pele (who also eats a Paleo diet). I am proud to reign from the great Pacific Northwest and am beyond blessed to live in the beautiful San Juan Islands with my fiancé Matt, who is a commercial salmon and crab fisherman.
Kinsey Jackson’s Articles


Max Shippee, Fitness Guru and CrossFit 1440 Owner

Max Shippe

I grew up in a very small town in northern Maine, minutes from the Canadian border. Growing up in the woods, and being the son of a dance teacher, I’ve been physically active my entire life. I’ve experimented with everything from body building to endurance training, before finding CrossFit and its performance-based approach to lifelong fitness.

Before finding a fit with the Paleo approach to nutrition, I’d tried numerous nutritional practices, including raw food, veganism, and Atkins.

At my gym, CrossFit 1440, I’ve helped people add inches to their vertical leap, and take inches off their waistlines. We’ve even had a few people at the gym who’ve lost over 100 pounds, and a few more lose more than 30. We’ve got some really strong & fast men & women sweating together at our little space. It’s a wonderfully miserable time. I have Level 1, Kids, and Mobility Certifications from CrossFit.

I’m an eclectic kind of guy. I’ve hiked to the top of volcanos in Indonesia, and cycled from Las Vegas to Austin, Texas. I’ve skied the slopes on the East Coast, and been dragged behind a boat in the summer. I’ve driven a snowmobile to school, and a dirt bike to work. I’ve always been the guy who’s had to work hard for my fitness, but I always feel like I’ve been balanced about it. I might be the guy ordering something weird at the restaurant, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to turn down a tequila shot. I believe we should be fit, so we can live life more fully, awesomeness all around.

I like the geeky things in life, including Legos, lasers, and computer operating systems named after cats. And I’m currently in the middle of performing a multiple year sleep-deprivation experiment known as “parenthood”.
Max Shippee’s Articles