Abstinence is the first step toward piety.

From the Sefer "Misilat Yeshurim",The Path of the Just by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato

Abstinence is the first step toward piety....
Our sages of blessed memory expressed the underlying principle of abstinence (Yevamos 20a) as follows: "Sanctify yourself through the permissible." This is what the word abstinence actually means- to abstain and distance oneself form something, i.e., to deny oneself what is permissible, with the aim of (setting up a barrier,) preventing any contact with the actual prohibition.

First of all I want to say that I spent many hours studying this in the past and I never connected to it. It seemed like something for Malachim, angels. Now that I have been abstinent for about a half a year, I feel like it is talking directly to me.

As I sit there weighing out my food, taking one little string bean off the plate because the scale says 8.1 instead of 8.0 ounces, sometimes I wonder why I need to be so strict. After all its just vegetables. But that is the point, where is your nekudot habichirah (decision point). Is it going to be with how much vegetables I can eat, or is is going to be with how many pieces of cake I am going to eat.

It is like that with everything in life. We are all fighting an up hill battle and we have to draw a line somewhere.