Do I really need to officially "join" in order to follow Slimming World?

[GeordieBadgers]

... or is all the information available online through forums, etc?

I'm a poor-ass student.

Many thanks!

You don't NEED to join, but I recommend joining for a couple of months so you can get the support you need at the start. I only keep paying my online membership so I can access the syns database really, but I've been doing it for over a year. I definitely needed the extra support when I first started.

I haven't joined as I felt I could motivate myself ( it has taken me very many years of being overweight before I got to that point though). A lot of folks don't seem to stay to group after the weigh in (goes on too long, people not friendly, leader not great,are some of the reasons I've seen here ) so I decided to save my money and just weigh once a week in Boots. I found all the info I needed online to follow the plan( I didn't want the cookbooks as I don't eat meat and already have lots of recipies. I just buy the magazines in a newsagent. The one main thing for me is not having access to the syn values of things so I just work on the 1 syn - 20 calories basis. It has worked for me, these threads on mumsnet have been an amazing source of support and I have lost over 4 stone so far.
If you can motivate yourself try going it alone, if you would like access to members only stuff go to a couple of meetings then just stop going.

A friend has just started with SW and tells me that there are no red and green days anymore. Is it just Extra Easy now or has it all changed?

That's right, Symphony, it's not red and green anymore, it's Extra Easy, with Extra Easy SP as a weight loss booster.
But if you've followed SW previously and have been okay with red and green, you could just continue with that- it won't stop working.

Thanks pippin. I did it about 5 years ago with DP, he didn't go to groups though. I was in an old thread about it under a different NN. I was thinking about doing it for a few weeks over the summer hols as I am away at the end. My diet is terrible at the moment, too much premade stuff and bread, so this will force me to cook and eat properly.

I used to find that switching to green or red every now and again kick started a loss.

Personally I need the motivation of going to the weigh in and staying to the group. I've never stuck with diets for long on my own. You may have more motivation than me though.