There are three stages for salvation ( Elder Ambrose of Optina )

"There are three stages for salvation. St. John the Golden Tongue states: a) Do not sin. b) If you have sinned, repent. c) Those who repent inadequately, have to bear their sorrows as they find them."

Elder Ambrose of Optina

God will see your desire and suffering and will implant love into your heart.... ( Elder Ambrose of Optina )

Of course, love is higher than everything. If you find that you have no love within you but wish to obtain it, then perform acts of love, even though at the beginning without love. God will see your desire and suffering and will implant love into your heart. "Those who have an unsightly heart should not despair, because with God’s help they can reform it. All you need to do is watch yourself attentively, do not allow an opportunity to be beneficial to your close one slip by, disclose your thoughts to your elders and be benevolent to the utmost. Of course this cannot be done suddenly, but God is very patient. He only terminates the life of a person when He sees that he is ready to cross over into eternity, or, when He sees that there is no hope for improvement in him.

Elder Ambrose of Optina

Plain food is not nasty food ( Elder Ambrose of Optina )

    
In the Scripture, we see the necessity to observe fasts, firstly from the example set by Christ Himself, who fasted 40 days in the wilderness, even though He was God and had no need of this. Secondly, to the Disciples’ question as to why they could not drive out the evil spirit in a person, He replied: "Through your unbelief;" and then added: "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29) Apart from this, there are directions in the Scripture that we must observe Wednesdays and Fridays as days of fasting. On Wednesday, Christ was given up for crucifixion and on Friday, He was crucified.

Plain food is not nasty food. It does not corrupt the body but fattens it. And St.Apostle Paul says: "Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16) He calls the outward person as body and the inward, as the soul.

Elder Ambrose of Optina