Not many people hit the gym 12 months an year. It is quite natural to loose some stamina and strength during that time. However getting back to the gym after a layoff and starting right from where you left off is not a wise thing to do.
One should be cautious in his/her approach and should initially start with only say 75% of the intensity that you think you can actually perform your workout sessions at. Going full blast in the first go can actually cause harm. What this means is that during the initial days (or weeks) of a comeback, you're able to do more damage to yourself than your body can cope with. Out body adapts to the routine of an intense workout by making itself ready to recover from physical stress and also coping with the waste products that intense workout produces. when you take time off from gym, this capacity of the body decreases more in proportion to the loss in muscular strength and hence chances of not recovering are more, causing muscle damage.
This mechanism of gradually easing into your old workout schedule applies to diet also. Our body has this great adaptive mechanism in the sense that it fine tunes itself to the daily routine. Increasing your diet overnight us counter productive. The body actually adjusts itself to what your diet by producing a different array of enzymes to match what you eat. If you gradually adjust your diet, it can keep up with the changes. The idea is to trick your body into thinking that nothing's out of the ordinary by making consistent, almost imperceptible changes. If you shock it, it fights back. e.g: If you were to drastically change your diet, it is high likely that you get a bad stomach. This is the fightback mechanism of our body.
So go easy on your workout initially and when you feel your body is ready to cope with the stress, its time to go harder.
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