The Cut - Life After Food?

Allison is an actress. When we meet up for coffee — she has an almond-milk cortado — in midtown, something’s different about her, but I’m not sure what. She looks like an Instagram version of herself but in real life.

It turns out she’s down about ten pounds and happy about it. “Somebody once told me I had a size-zero personality, and they assumed that I was thinner than I was,” she tells me. “We don’t talk about it, but everybody knows it. Thin is power.”

Allison isn’t alone in seeming to be suddenly, unaccountably slimmer of late. She admitted to me — with the provision that I not use her real name — the reason, one that is increasingly common if still not quite openly discussed. For the past month, she’s been jabbing herself every week with Ozempic, the heavily advertised (“Oh, oh, oh, Ozempic,” to the tune, none too subtly, of the ’70s classic-rock hit “Magic”) diabetes miracle drug, which works by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone, GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide one), to manage hunger and slow stomach emptying.

Hope you’re having a good Monday, be it bare minimum or otherwise. Speaking of work-life balance, even the Twitter employee who bragged about sleeping on a mattress on her office floor ended up getting laid off. If you’ve been listening to Miley’s “Flowers” nonstop, as we have, you’ll be excited to hear that it was announced today that the new album will be released March 10. It’s International Polar Bear Day today — look at some beautiful images of the arctic ursines, then donate to help protect them if you can. Let’s all wear our lucky underwear tomorrow for the future of student-loan forgiveness. There’s a trailer for Ted Lasso season three. Ask yourself, What soothes you? And if you’re in New York City, mind your headphones.

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