i'm in canada. i checked the website of the BC powerlifting association, but no luck there. i'll probably email them and see whether i can get a contact. and i guess it can't hurt to check the local crossfit box, even though i don't want to do crossfit. i like what crossfit has done in regards to building community, and i very much like the basic principle of becoming competent in all human movement. but i think their workouts privilege speed over form and are consequently very injury-prone, and too many of their coaches are just as badly educated as your average personal trainer. i really do like kelly starrett, however; his mobilityWODs are working wonders for me. and maybe as at your box, there's a good trainer at the local crossfit who also does private strength training. have you heard of ido portal? his philosophy is where i want to go once i have some basic strength.

"real food as unprocessed as possible" is what i eat too, but it's not compatible with what people sell as paleo. i eat almost completely vegetarian now, and that means no meat, plenty of legumes, whole grains, and some dairy. the only thing i have in common with paleo is that we all eat vegetables. ;)

yeah, upon giving it a closer look nerdfitness is ok. it's certainly much more my kind of people than the stronglifts forums. and they don't actually have the paleo police run rampant in the forums. ;) i've even found some vegetarians, and the NFers across the strait in vancouver have regular meetups.

in case anyone else reading this is interested, i've also found something called the "fit fatties" forum at http://fitfatties.ning.com/ where there is blessedly no weight loss and diet talk because they subscribe to HAES. that could be great, but it's not very active, and i think part of that is the software; it's very hard to find anything and follow conversations.