Greetings from a rookie warrior

[jackattack271]

Hello everybody! I found Nerd Fitness a few days ago and have been reading it a lot, so I decided I should join the ranks. I started distance running a few years ago and got just serious enough about it (did 3-5 mile runs 2-3 times per week) to get myself into pretty decent shape. I'm definitely proud of that, but I've still got a bit of a gut I'd like to get rid of. Now, I want to be stronger, leaner, and more muscular.

I tried to get into heavy lifting a couple months ago but had a hard time dealing with weight room intimidation and I just made it too complicated. I'm going to start again, but this time I will keep it simple, and stick with it, RARGH! I also want to switch to the paleo diet, it makes a lot of sense to me. Anybody got suggestions for easing into that? My family eats a lot of grain-based stuff so it will be a challenge to not eat those things while I'm living with them. Also, I can't decide about dairy... should I keep it for now while I'm trying to build muscle, and then ditch it later?