I have a bit of a different take on renunciation and restraint. I have been celibate for a good 10 years now, and it was a liberation, the removal of a burden, a joy to realise that there is no necessity to engage in this highly programmed and habitual thinking and acting.
As I put the path into practice - over time the distaste for certain actions became so strong, that desire was absent > to decide to no longer be a slave to certain behaviours was the happy relinquishment of burdens and completely natural. Now I actually did this before I new what the precepts were! It was a natural consequence of the gradual training on the 8 fold path. Though I didn’t know this existed at the time either… Obviously, I was lucky enough to see that relationships, and especially intimate contact brought nothing but suffering.
My experience shows it from another angle. I never started out with the intention of restraining desire and to be celibate. I focused instead on how I felt and how my mind was affected before, during and after all kinds of activities. It was easy to see that intimate relationships really distorted the mind and perceptions, endless energy being expended by the mind and fantasies, and by the body in physical craving. Just watching these things ‘control’ so much > all for this repetitive dance round and round and round > desire, procurement, satisfaction, disappointment, desire, chasing, getting wanting more, feeling empty and dis-satisfied, wanting, fantasising, chasing, getting, dis-satisfaction, wanting , wanting, wanting, chasing, obsessing, fantasising, getting the prize, the prize is empty, start again - Again and again and again and again… ad infinitum!
Let me off - Please 
So many wonderful things to be doing instead 
And so I’ve found it with most of the things that the Buddha identifies as bringing about suffering - don’t be a slave > aim for liberation from habitual patterns and conditioned responses… then comes the real happiness.
Just to add, of course occasionally, after all one is still alive, with sense functions operating, certain stimulus brings about a response. But seeing the response clearly is the important thing. If one acts on this, it is interesting to note that the enjoyment is lessened… how can one enjoy it as much, when one realises it is conditioning of mind and body that fabricates and motivates the responses?? Over time, this naturally diminishes, just as Dhammarakkhita said.
However, I must add, that had I had an attitude of “that is forbidden”, I would have found it much harder to comply. The fact that it was wholly up to me, and because it was seen as reducing suffering and increasing happiness it was easy and natural. So for those in lay life who want to give it a go, I’d suggest to NOT focus on relinquishment, but to really focus on how it is ‘not self’ that is pushing one to pursue certain actions, thoughts and feelings, and to let natural Nibbida occur
Added in:
Just so that I practice what I preach 
https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/sn22.39/1
At Savatthi. “Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu is practising in accordance with the Dhamma, this is what accords with the Dhamma: he should dwell engrossed in revulsion towards form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. One who dwells engrossed in revulsion towards form … and consciousness, fully understands form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. One who fully understands form … and consciousness is freed from form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. He is freed from birth, aging, and death; freed from sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair; freed from suffering, I say.”