Thoughts on trying new things

This entry goes along with the one I wrote last night about my first "official" week of half marathon training. I have a feeling that in the next few months, my blog is going to quickly become all about my running and my training so I apologize for those who may be bored reading about running and food all the time.

I've discovered in my weight loss journey through the last couple of years that my greatest struggle is trying new things and my tendency to be an emotional eater. The emotional eating side of me is something that is slowly coming under control because I've started tracking my food and thinking about why I'm eating at a particular time. This leaves the struggle of trying new things.

I'm slowly branching out into the world of trying things that I either used to eat a loooooong time ago or things I never thought I would eat. The problem here is that I've come to realize I have a texture problem. I literally CAN NOT eat fruits and veggies because of the texture of them. Veggies are too raw or too mushy, depending on whether they're cooked or not. Most fruits are too raw, too rubbery, or too bumpy, depending on what I'm trying to eat. Take for example strawberries. I love anything strawberry flavored but I can't eat a strawberry because of the texture from the seeds. I can't eat grapes because they're too rubbery. The list goes on and on.

I typically get my fruits and veggies from juice or smoothies and even then that is few and far between because both juice and smoothies are expensive. I've tried to make home made smoothies by using our blender but can't get the consistency to turn out right so I gave those up in frustration.

I just don't know what more to do. How can you eat healthy if you have a texture problem? I wish I could figure out how to get over this texture issue but it's something I've struggled with since I was a kid. I've tried so many different types of fruits and veggies but just can't get past the texture of them, even if I like the flavor of them.

I want so badly to be able to try new things and get past my texture problem but I'm at a road block and can't figure out what more to do. The idea of trying new things literally freaks me out because of the food's texture. I end up making myself gag over the thought of sticking something with a different texture in my mouth and then I just get mad at myself for not being able to get past this problem and I end up eating stuff that is less healthy for me.

Any suggestions??