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My partner and I are far along that road, as well as the road to veganism. For us it was less a sudden departure, and more a slow journey into adventurous eating because we were bored with fast food and the food our families had always made. My advice is simply to remember that all tastes have to be acquired, and that takes time. Find people to go out together so you can try multiple things at once, esp people who already know what they like at a new place. Without one local Vietnamese place's veggie bahn mi I'm not sure we'd've ever acquired the taste for tofu, but now I can enjoy almost any of it.

Some simple recipe starters to cheaply move away from the American diet at home when you're looking for something simple: In a rice cooker, combine 3/4 cup dried green lentils and 1 cup brown rice, thoroughly washed, with 500ml of water with seasonings of your choice. Turn on rice cooker and enjoy in ~15 minutes. Also combines well with 1 can diced tomatoes and chilis (like rotel)

Heat 1 can of drained chickpeas on a plate covered with a cloth/paper towel to prevent popping for 5 minutes in a microwave, transfer into a pan with hot oil and cook over medium-high heat until at desired texture, being sure to season while in pan as desired. Place cooked chickpeas on tortillas with steamed corn, some salad greens (shout out to cheap coleslaw mix), chopped fruit, or anything else you can think of to give more texture and finish with any sort of sauce. Wrap and enjoy.

admittedly, it started simple and modest. less salt, more acid and heat. less sugar in general, more umami. that's what I would look for in dishes, what they were relying on to be savory. it was pretty easy to find Americanized Asian dishes that still use salt and sugar, but they would be supplemented by lots of garlic and ginger for an interesting sharpness. there's also a book called 660 Curries which gives a lot of context to just how diverse S. Asian cuisine is and functions as an insane recipe reference.

from there it was stumbling across a really cheap, no frills SE Asian takeout place that puts all the effort into the food. no seating, wait in the cold/rain outdoors with no cover, get food through a slot. only 3 choices, menu shifts weekly. that let me try a lot of things, learn some terms and discover a lot in a short amount of time.

also, if you smoke tobacco, definitely drop that ASAP. for health reasons for sure, but also it mutes/muddles your sense of smell and taste. it's hard to overstate how much, but I think it's one of the reasons so many restaurants prepare food that is overseasoned... because the exec chef's palette and their little brigades are all scorched and blasted from their cig breaks.