Gym memberships can be a great thing, but they can be costly and difficult to use if you’re a homebody. The same is true for memberships to dieting clubs and services. These tools have their place for some people, but they don’t work for everyone. Getting fit and staying that way can be easy, even if you’re on a budget, or just a person who likes to do things at your own pace in the comfort of your home.

Expensive equipment isn’t necessary in order to get a workout. You can skip the dumbbells and use a sixteen-ounce water bottle in their place. Each one weighs around a pound. If you find yourself advancing and want to add extra weight to your strength training routine, you can use gallon jugs, adding water as your fitness level progresses. A water filled gallon jug weighs a little over eight pounds.

You don’t have to have a lot of space in your house devoted to a home gym in order to get cardio. Push the coffee table aside and stand in front of the television or any internet connected device. YouTube has a wealth of information when it comes to free cardio and yoga. Denise Austin has a simple Fat Blasting Cardio video for beginners, where you end up doing a mile of steps in fifteen minutes. With this easy to follow video, you can tone your arms in eight minutes a day. BeFit has a Full Body Yoga video. If videos aren’t your vibe, you can walk outside at a brisk pace to get the 2.5 hours a week of exercise that the American Heart association recommends to keep you healthy.

Dieting apps can make tracking your calorie count a breeze. MyFitnessPal boasts having over 11 million foods in their database and the app connects with over fifty other apps, including Samsung Health and Fitbit. This is a great tool to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, because the app allows you to customize your experience based on your goals and current measurements. You can also change the amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat you want to consume on a daily basis. You can manually input exercise and physical activity, if you don’t have an integrated app that does it for you.

Meal planning resources can help you stick to a calorie goal. Eat This Much allows you to customize your meals based on your dietary needs and calorie restrictions, and in the free version, it assists you in creating custom meal plans. The paid version generates shopping lists and allows you to plan a week of meals at a time. The United States Department of Agriculture ditched the food pyramid and revamped their nutrition guidelines outlined in their website. The information on the site lets you know how many servings of what things you should be eating every day. After answering a few questions, you’ll know how many calories you should be consuming to maintain your current weight, or to lose weight. This is a handy tool if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to eating a balanced diet.

Achieving the level of fitness that feels healthy for you doesn’t have to break your wallet or take you far from the homestead. With these tips you can hang out at your house, save your money, and work on getting fit.