Cooking your own food downgrades productivity

The time investment required to go shopping and prepare the actual meal is one thing--no biggie. But when it comes to self-congratulations I go a little overboard.

Preparing a meal feels like an achievement. One deserving of a reward. And since I'm the only one willing to reward myself for microwaving peas and overcooking chicken, the best I can offer myself is a walk, a call, a good stretch, maybe some loud tunes, corpse position, eyes closed.

The prouder I am of the meal, the bigger the reward I believe I ought to be given. Yknow, if the taters are topped with chives or something fancy. As I expend more effort on a meal, my expectation for reward grows more quickly than the actual yumminess of the meal. So no, the reward can never be satisfied by the sheer pleasure of the meal itself (there ain't much of that anyway).

But when you're lucky enough to have Sam and Blake manning the barbeque, the math starts to work out.