I'm Jewish, but a lot of my family is Catholic, so I know all about Lent.
When I was little, I used to joke that I was giving up homework for Lent. For some reason, that didn't go over too well with my parents...
I've been given to understand that the requirements for Lent were a lot more difficult pre-Vatican II. A couple of my Catholic relatives used to follow the old requirements even after Vatican II. This included the full Lenten fast, which was 2 small meals and 1 full meal
every day (except Sundays, which are not actually counted as part of Lent), in addition to abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays (even Fridays not in Lent). Children, the elderly, and the sick didn't have to fast but still had to abstain from meat. Can any older Catholics corroborate this?