Hi, Pambie! Obviously I'm not Cathe, and only she can answer the question regarding her use of any machinery, but I can tell you that yes, you can achieve optimal fitness as a home exerciser without fancy, expensive aerobic or strength training machines.
About the only real equipment I have for my home workouts are two steps of two different lengths and widths, several pairs of hex dumbbells and an adjustable Troy Lite barbell, a couple of sets of magnetic weight add-ons for my dumbbells, a VCR and DVD player, and a few judiciously-selected workout videos, all but one of which are produced by Cathe. That's all I need!
Annette