The holidays are a great time to travel and spend time with our friends and family. While many people are choosing to stay home this year, plenty are choosing to travel and spend the Thanksgiving weekend with their loved ones. If you are traveling, near or far, chances are you are dreading the drive home, especially if you ate a little bit too much turkey. Chances are, you’re feeling a bit of what people like to call the ‘itis,’ and it can make for a dangerous road trip home.

The Thanksgiving ‘itis’

The ‘itis’ goes by many names, but we are all too familiar with the feeling. It happens when we eat too much food, especially foods like turkey. Well, I’ve never met anyone who chose Thanksgiving to be the first day of their pre-new year’s diet, so chances are if you’re driving to visit family, you’ll have to deal with traveling home with a full belly and a border-line food-coma.

Avoiding potential danger

After a full day of spending time with our families and friends and eating way too much Thanksgiving turkey, we all feel a little exhausted. That can make the drive home feel even longer, and when you’re feeling the effects of eating too much food, it can also be dangerous. Along with holidays comes holiday traffic, and pandemic or not, that will be the case in many cities across the country. Rolling the windows down and getting some fresh air can help you stay awake and focused on the road ahead, other drivers, and potential hazards.

Plan ahead

If you know that you’re going to want to keep heading back for seconds and thirds, the best way to avoid the ‘itis’ is to take your extra helpings to go. While it’s definitely easy to eat more than our fill of mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole as we sit around the dinner table, bringing a to-go container and stuffing your face at home can be a great compromise to avoid feeling lethargic after dinner without missing out on all of the good stuff.

Travel home safely this Thanksgiving, even if you’re feeling a little bit of stuff like the turkey. Driving for the holidays can be exhausting, and the added lethargy caused by overeating can be annoying, but if you’re not careful, it can also be dangerous.