By LMQC Battle of the Bulge blogger, Alan Sivell, St. Ambrose communications professor, RAGBRAI-er, pizza lover and longtime weight watcher.

Thanks to a new pair of knees, I’ve been able to lose weight and keep it off. I can walk, ride my bike and work out on the elliptical without pain.

The bad news is: You have to buy new clothes.

Yes, you HAVE to. You can’t keep sloshing about in size 42 pants when you are now a 34. Your family members don’t want that and neither do we, your public.

I sympathize. For many of us, the child-rearing years were too busy to really watch our diet or work out. We hid in our clothes.

(We’d actually be pleased when the disguise worked well enough that someone asked, Have you lost weight? Or, Have you been working out? No, you’d think, I’ve just bought a flattering shirt – vertical stripes, not horizontal – and haven’t tucked it in.)

Now, living in ill-fitting clothes is not just the province of empty-nesters. I saw it almost happen to a very fit young man the other day when I was in a clothing store to refresh a couple of pieces of my own wardrobe.

I was looking at bowties when I spotted the young man trying on shirts. His girlfriend was helping him button up something that was at least 3 neck sizes too big. They were debating the fit.

I couldn’t help myself. I marched over and said, No! That’s not even close. You’ll look like you’re wearing your dad’s clothes. You want a shirt, not a tent.

I stuck around long enough to determine his size and point him to that section of the rack.

While I’ll argue for clothes that fit the body properly, I also think they should fit your age.

Years ago, I remember enthusiastically recommending some jeans I was wearing to my new father-in-law. He took a look at the tight fit and low cut, paused, and said, “Son, those are young man’s jeans.”

To which he added, “When you get to my age, you’ll know what I mean.”

Well, now I’m there. I understand what he was saying. But still, I’m not wearing a tent.

And the compliments I get are actually earned.