Posting this mostly to say it out loud somewhere. I lost around 60 over sixteen months, held most of it for almost a year, then a stretch of job stuff, a cross-state move, and my mom's surgery undid maybe 30 of that. I kept telling myself I'd get back to it once things calmed down, which is a lie I'm very good at telling.
I didn't wait for January this time. Restarted in late winter mostly because January felt like too much pressure. Down 19 since then. Slow, not dramatic. Some mornings the old thoughts show up, the ones insisting round one was luck and round two is just a countdown to undoing it again.
What's different: I'm not treating this as punishment for the regain. Breakfast happens. I lift twice a week even when the numbers are ugly. I logged 47 of the last 58 days, which isn't perfect and I've stopped needing it to be.
The regain was real and it stung. I'd still take the first round again for the energy and the stairs and the labs alone.
Anyone else on their second lap? Did the mental side get easier for you, or just familiar?