While Laila Ali has certainly been in the public eye through her boxing, appearance on Dancing With the Stars, and her job hosting American Gladiators, she's not under quite the same pressure as some Hollywood starlets to stay thin throughout her pregnancy. However, in an interview with Pregnancy, Laila spills about her stresses, and I think many of us can easily relate.

"I always thought I was going to gain a lot of weight because I'm a big girl naturally," said Laila, who, at 5'11' normally weighs in at around 175. "I thought, 'Oh God, I'm going to be like 250 lbs. and huge.' I know a lot of women have that fear. But, because I'm already a big girl, I was just imagining myself to be giant."

Her concern doesn't really stem from vanity -- she's mainly worried about having a big baby. She has a big sweet tooth, and she's working hard to control it, especially now that she's in her third trimester. She continues to hit the gym four days a week for cardio on the elliptical and light upper body weights, and it sounds like she's appreciating her body through her pregnancy. I bet she'll follow a sensible plan after the baby to get back to her fighting weight!

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My kids were invited to a bounce house birthday party this past weekend. The birthday girl's parents are good friends, so I hung around to chat and watch the fun. I ended up hardly watching, burning a bushel of calories bouncing and running instead. It was sparked after getting roped into a race through a vertical bounce house obstacle course against the birthday girl's dad.

After a trial run to determine strategy, we lined up facing separate chutes that merge near the end for a climactic climb up a wall to a finishing slide. I have difficulty taking competition lightly. My heart was racing in anticipation as we waited until the kids cleared. After the crack of the starting gun -- my buddy said "go" -- I dove head first into the chute, flung my body into a side roll, threw myself over two squishy barricades and got smacked in the head by a post in the maze. After climbing a short wall, I dove down an incline, then turned to face the big climb. No opponent in sight, so I zipped up the top like a cocky middle-aged monkey and slid down to victory. Turns out my competition had decided to dive in the chute feet first. Bad decision in terms of momentum -- he fell backwards out of the chute and lost critical time.

After the big race I had flashbacks of my days watching American Gladiator episodes. Remember that nutty show featuring muscular Gladiator bodybuilding giants matched against mortal opponents totally cut, but much smaller in size? The small frys would usually get pummeled by Gladiators in The Joust, The Wall and The Eliminator. I was never into bodybuilding, but I always wanted to face a Gladiator and show 'em my stuff. Looks like I can reignite my dream -- it just so happens American Gladiators is back in production with the season opener scheduled for January 6. Look out Gladiators Crush, Stealth and Fury -- I'm amping up my workouts. Hellga, I'm just plain scared of you. Think you can take a Gladiator? Pic from www.nbc.com.

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