I checked in with Team Camo’s head trainer Andy Calise and the first thing I asked was “How are things going this week?” Andy told me this last week has been pivotal week for the team.

"Week five was really tough we hit a slump. It’s the first time Team Camo had stumbled as a team," he said. "But it’s how the team responded to the adversity that brought them great success in week six.”

Week Five Slump

According to Andy, contributing factors to the week five slump included Valentine’s Day, general malaise and overconfidence. That this is the time when the monotony sets in and the initial thrill of losing weight has worn off. Andy further explained “For us as a team we’ve been wildly successful – when the moral of the team is central to how well they’re doing ­ there’s a strong sense of accountably. And when the group doesn’t do well two things happen: team moral takes a turn for the worse and frustration and discouragement set in. I continuously challenge them to respond positively with determination – and by doing just that they logged their best week.  This says a lot about the strength of the team as a whole.”

Andy spends a great deal of time teaching team members how to react positively to adversity. This goes back to Andy’s military training where he’d tell his men “It’s easy when it’s sunny out and you’re feeling good. It’s important to remember what you’re capable of when you’re tired, cold and scared – it’s during these moments you’ll have to harness your energy.”

Team Support & Team Health

One of the things Andy noticed in the team e-mails after the poor performance from week five was that team members who had the least weight loss numbers were the most vocal about bringing it to the table for the next week – and they became the biggest cheerleaders. Email messages included things like “Hey guys only lost 0.8 lbs this week – sorry I’ll dig in and have a better week this week to help the team.” Typically you’d think the response would be to clam up and get possibly get jealous of other’s weight loss but that wasn’t the case.  This says a lot about team moral and how they work together.

“Team Camo is truly unique and special," said Andy. "We’ve got people looking to motivate each other regardless of whether they are frustrated with their performance. And it’s also important to note that the person thought about the team first and themselves second. If they were only thinking about themselves they’d be depressed and that tells me we have a healthy team.”

Check back next week for Week Seven updates. Diets are streamlined, exercise has been turned up, and Challengers are in the final push.