In the 1950s I was growing up in a very strict Roman Catholic home. We gave up a lot for lent. However, it wasn't horrible because Sundays were exempt from Lent. It was perfectly acceptable to have a small piece of candy on Sunday afternoon. It was also acceptable for everyone in the family to have ice cream on Sunday evening.
If you trace the 'forty days' of traditional Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Saturday, you'll see that Sundays aren't included in the count . Sometimes non-Catholics say that's cheating. We didn't think that at all.