Teaching myself to lift heavy stuff without dieing

I'm basically brand-new to this weight lifting thing. I'd love to have a good trainer or coach helping me with this (and would REALLY love someday to find some regular CrossFit classes to attend, even though they scare me).

But I'm cash-poor at the moment - I can't really afford my reduced-fee Y membership and regular personal training also.

What I do have are:

• common sense
• a pretty good layman's understanding of anatomy
• a wealth of information at my fingertips
  
• the time to sift through that information

So, I've decided to stop hemming and hawing (and spending endless hours on the treadmill), and start 1) lifting with purpose and determination 2) challenging myself via interval training. I won't say that my plans are 100% solid, but they're beginning to coalesce.

I really want to keep things simple and functional as possible. This means doing challenging compound movements like squats and push-ups. Yeah, push-ups are challenging for me. I've never called on my upper body to do much hard work before. But I'm ready to start.

Today I'm sitting and feeling sore (the good kind) from yesterday's lifting. Tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing. I'm excited to get my tendons and ligaments primed, so that I can really start challenging myself in terms of weight.