i'm 5+ years out.
i love food and everything about it (many on here know this about me already). i love the cooking, baking, making, plating, shopping, researching, testing recipes of it all. i love to watch all the tv cooking shows, all the travel food shows, all the cooking/baking/grilling competition shows. i like to look at pictures of food, smell it, take pictures and videos of it, watch people eat the stuff i make for them. one of my favourite pasttimes it to read restaurant menus in their entirety...like multiple times. i am always down to go out for food and drinks at restaurants/bars with fam and friends, i am always so excited to come up with my contribution(s) to pot-luck parties. love love trying out new restaurants...i have a list of bucket list restaurants around the world i am determined to visit.
...and i love to eat. but to be more precise, i love to TASTE. so small plate venues (dim sum, tapas, izakaya, etc) and tasting menus and pot luck parties are my fave: an abundance of choice and low commitment to just a single large entree. i have will taste all the "good stuff" (easy on the side dishes as they take up too much stomach real estate) and be perfectly happy.
a.k.a. JOY lol.
the one difference with how i enjoy food now is i no longer feel joy with the stuffing of myself. i have vague memories of actually feeling GOOD with a distended belly bursting with something i ate. Now its the opposite. the feeling of being full is very unpleasant to me (to put it mildly). and i think this is key, now that i think of it....
long story short, joy is still on the table...its just up to you where you find it.