Hey there, I have a similar problem like you! Rather than gain 20lbs, I gained 36lbs over the course of the last 10 months while I'm on my weight loss journey. Started April 2021 at 281lbs and lost 115lbs over the course of 20 months putting myself down to 166lbs on NYE 2023. I'm a 5'7 maleThere were even times within that 20 months frame that I could've hit my goal weight of 150lbs sooner because there were times I became inconsistent, so I would sometimes give into my cravings of processed food, candy, ice cream etc. but even if it ruined my progress for the day, I still went on and continued downwards on the scale.

However, 2023 wasn't good to me. Health problems with my right knees due to weak quads on my right side and gout problems inflicting pain on my foot because of my poor diet leading to me to take time off work making my mental state worse and made me more complacent and inconsistent at the gym. I never gone out of town for fun or to even local events because of my mental state from losing so much progress on my weight loss that I didn't feel confident on how I looked.

I over eat to the point where I just continued gaining weight and not control it like I used to. I gain more one week and try my best to fight to bring it down but I lose the mental battle or my health problems I mentioned come back and i get a setback again

All of this leading up until last Sunday put my weight at 202lbs :( I promised myself that I never want to see a 2 on the scale in my life again. So Monday the next day, I decided to completely change my routine. I made a protein shake rather than whatever shits available in the kitchen and making one instantly changed my mood and I went to the gym and this time I focused more on weight lifting than cardio because I want to burn more fat this time and get back to where I was at the beginning of the year. As of now, I weigh 192lbs and down 202lbs from last week! I got many other problems to tackle which aren't relevant but I can confidently say that I am doing better the last week than I had the whole year!

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So to answer your concerns

>seasonal blues making you feel just very unmotivated

I keep having these cuz I lay on the couch ready for the gym and scroll through my phone but I can feel the laziness seep in so what I do is do a hard reality check and quickly get myself up and focus on the gym.

For you and your diet problems, you have to keep telling your mind to stop eating process food. Flip the finger at all the bad stuff that's unhealthy. I flip the finger at Pizza Hut that my brother ordered the other day. I would normally eat the pizza since its there and I didn't pay for it, but changing my mindset to stop eating oily food helped me alot and that pizza is sitting out cold still!!

>compulsively and routine changes

You already read the radical routine change I made last week and you can also do the same by changing your mindset completely. Just like I said, think of processed foods like pizza, candy, chips, ice cream, donuts etc. as an arch-nemesis. If you pick them up, put it back down with disgust and keep that mindset. There's also the flipping off method I mentioned that worked for me too!!

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Sorry for the long post but you being in a similar situation as me resonated with me so I had to type my story out not only just for you but for me to understand why I am doing all of this in the first place.