I have a feeling that if you want to join up as a 'new' consultant, you now have to be at target, or at least very close to it.
My very first consultant (many years ago) was fabulous, really inspirational and everyone liked her. However, a few years on and she is now a rather 'large' lady. She did start coming to my class to loose weight for a while.
I did hear that she applied to become a consultant again and was rejected because of her weight. I also 'hear' that our area is severely lacking in consultants and are always on a recruitment drive, so I was very surprised they didn't jump at the chance to take her back.